This extended sequence of poems explores eccentric fathers and other adult relationships through an examination of patriarchal values that includes such figures as the 19th-century explorer David Livingstone, Irish patriot Roger Casement, and the poet's own father. The second part of this collection includes a long narrative poem that celebrates the relationship between two 17th-century Englishmen a diplomat and a doctor. Inspired by portraits hanging in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, the verses detail their passionate and erudite life together in Constantinople.
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Celebrating five centuries of the artistic bond between Scotland and France, these poems are portraits of artists and reflections on art. In this work, Jean-Jacques Rousseau irritates his portrait painter Allan Ramsay; John Acheson, Master of the Scottish Mint, takes Mary, Queen of Scots portrait for the Scottish coinage; and Esther Inglis paints the first self-portrait by a Scottish artist. A reflection on the nature of a collection, this analytic consideration not only features paintings hanging in Scotland s major galleries but also explores the rapport between art and poetry."