Simmers simmers. That is to say -- you read him -- and his lines set about their business in your head, simmering away and then suddenly making you laugh out loud. This is a poet clever with rhyme and metre, but what strikes you most of all is the fun he is having, sheer fun. And as you read him, you find you're having fun too -- something that's not that common in modern verse. But this is the Editor of Snakeskin, and we've come to expect something pretty special from him online. Here it is on paper too.

Some fabulous things in the collection: an exercise in 'eye rhyme' -- For Your Eyes Only; Catullus in Square Limerick form; some Songs from an Impossible Musical; a whole set of 'Tossers' which (yes) is about what you think it's about; and, of course, the title poem, the magnificent Essay on Verse. Not to be missed. Simmering quietly here, just waiting for you to put in an order, the book awaits you. I recommend the paper version. It is a delight to handle and it will cheer up most people, with the possible exception of surrealists...