Frieda Hughes's Waxworks are figures from mythology and fable, the Bible and the annals of crime. But they are her own reinventions, sharply contemporary stories of anger and greed, love and sorrow, betrayal and jealousy.

Her waxworks are new characters reborn of their old selves. She does not judge her recreations but lets them speak for themselves, or shows them haunted in the modern world by their old lives, obsessed by old lies and ruling passions.

Frieda Hughes's vision in Waxworks is as dark and disturbing as a Jacobean tragedy. All are ravaged or ravishing, wounded or wounding. All is vanity.

Waxworks is Frieda Hughes's third collection, following Wooroloo (1999) and Stonepicker (2001), both from Bloodaxe. She has also published several children's books, and her paintings have been shown in many exhibitions.