"Robyn Mathison casts a curious and compassionate eye over the natural world and all its inhabitants. Her sense of wonder gives equal measure to cats, hens, historical figures and family members. The poems engage with provocative questions: Where will memory be when my body leaves? ('Quiet House') and arresting imagery: Limbless, he dreams/ music of the spheres echoes/ inside his fragile shell ('The Would-be Percussionist')." - Jane Williams

Surprising personal glimpses of the eminent and enigmatic Australian poet

'I wonder sometimes if the literary pests are writing memoirs: "The last time I saw her she was pale and sick but smiling bravely."' So mused the dying Gwen Harwood in a letter written a few months before she succumbed to cancer. Nearly two decades have passed since she wrote that, but no memoir or biography of the loved and estimable poet has yet appeared. While her poems and the two published volumes of her correspondence enable us to hear her speaking about herself and her life, and people and things that...