If good poetry is like an “espresso shot of culture” - these poems are more like tequila slammers on being human. JG obviously loves words and language and playing with the technical scaffolding of poetry as much as the meaning and feeling of the words. That little white stone in her young hand at the start is a poignant image: the realisation of a single stone’s natural power and beauty and potential, like a word (or person), can be treasured or analysed or used as a weapon. JG has clearly since learnt to carve, polish, smash, fuse all sorts of stone — and bravely and skilfully arranged some into this beautiful collective. The blurb asks if her voice can still resonate after years of silence. Some of these poems didn’t just resonate, they rattled cells in my body. I’ve been repeating some of the lines for days afterwards (“I, would like to sparkle before I fade”). ‘Picturing You’ is now one of my all-time favourite poems; a confronting reminder to keep a promise; to live a life devoted to connection and beauty - to avoid a safe life at all costs - couldn’t have come at a better time. I feel richer for having read these poems.

A moving and beautiful selection of poems. An incredible memoir through poetry. It feels like a very acerbic insight into a generation of mothers, of difficult marriages and difficult parents, of love and sadness.