Spanish Fly

This captivating collection delves into the dark, moist, unexpected bag of human experience. Taking the themes of love, sex, and life's unpredictable mysteries and excitements, Neil Rollinson scrapes away at the veneer of normality to reveal a world that is instantly stranger and more compelling than before. He revisits the erotic with his usual wit and bravado in poems that are sometimes playful and sensitive, sometimes visceral and shocking. The works explore scientific subjects through bedroom eyes, introducing the idea of entropy to the lovers' lexicon, and they make sport a backdrop for loneliness as characters play golf on the moon, take the final penalty in the shoot-out, or wander aimlessly and forever through the high grass of the village-cricket boundary. Diverse and provocative, vibrant and accessible, this is an unusually happy combination: a successful stimulant and a wholly satisfying performance.

Neil Rollinson is the author of Demolition and A Spillage of Mercury.