'Helen Ivory, a highly individualistic poet and visual artist, conjures a world that is both magical and sharply real. As in freshly conceived fairy tales, everything is transmutable. She expresses the intrinsic strangenesses of life, and makes a brilliant contribution to female empowerment through poems that are disturbing, agile, and visually telling.' - Moniza Alvi, Cholmondeley Award co-judge

'Helen Ivory, whose voice reminds me of the unsmiling mask of Buster Keaton--how, with drollness and play, she provides a map of the everyday bizarre and often whimsical possibilities of life lived through a highly playful, rather dark, and deeply imaginative vision. Is there a little Stevie Smith at play here? A little Brothers Grimm? Those and that of a newsreader who has gone off-script and is showing us wherever the expected has yielded to the uncanny and unusual? These poems are a delight for the assurance she provides that everyday wonders, surprises, and quotidian horrors are in our reach and accessible through her word ministry. Brave and imaginative! Read this book.' - Maxine Chernoff