Of Mutability

"I I think this is Shapcott’s finest book so far. I think the experience of having had cancer has brought a new vulnerability to her poetry, but also a new strength, and there are really enlivening poems in here that make you see the world differently. It’s about having come through cancer, having realised your cells are different in your body and being so glad to be alive. There are so many celebratory poems in here, even poems that look at boldness in a different way. If the task of the poet is to make you see old things in a fresh way, or to look at one thing and to compare it to another, to achieve a particular clarity through comparison and metaphor and image, then that’s what Shapcott does in this collection. One poem, which is really brilliant, begins with the line, ‘Can the bold lie? The nature of the skin says not’. She’s just got a quirky and interesting take on everything. A lot of these poems are influenced by the art of Helen Chadwick, and the writer, poet and artist Julia Darling who died of breast cancer at 48. So there’s a sense of guiding spirits in this book. But it’s not airy-fairy, it’s quite tough."