Reeling between England and Ireland, Keening spans the twentieth century, re-inventing myth and maternal family history; following the escapades of Teresa, the poet's mother, first, as an orphan in Ulster, and later, as a young nun in London, and Italy.

The setting then switches to Ireland in the nineteen nineties, where the keening for Teresa's sister, Nellie, takes place. Returning to England in the twenty-first century, Spittal Tongues intertwines the end of Teresa's long life with the poet's own new beginning.

Kathleen Kenny is a writer of Irish/Geordie parentage, who lives and works in Newcastle upon Tyne. She is employed by Sunderland University as a part-time creative writing lecturer for the Centre for Lifelong Learning. Kathleen's previous poetry collection, also from Red Squirrel Press, was Firesprung.