What could be more exciting than a box of books left at the front door by Australia Post?

This one which arrived last week was a very special delivery : my new poetry book, The Shadow Box, published by Pitt Street Poetry. After a long time devoted to the writing, and then delays due to the Pandemic, it is wonderful to see it at last — beautifully designed and printed, and in good time to be launched at the Newcastle Writers Festival on April 2nd.

The Shadow Box is a book-length sequence of poems inspired by the experiences of my maternal grandparents, George and Jean Campbell, during and shortly after World War I. From their marriage a month before George left for war, through four years of separation—broken briefly by a six month visit by Jean to him in Egypt—the poems attempt to recreate their daily lives on different sides of the world. They draw on George’s diary and Jean’s letters to him, as well as my own imagination, to celebrate a family history which is both a cameo of another time, and strangely resonant with challenges in our world today.

The Shadow Box will be launched by John Foulcher at the Newcastle Writers Festival on Sunday April 2nd, 1.30-2.30pm.

It is available now for sale online from https://pittstreetpoetry.com/