p>Eleanor Brown is a witty new poet who writes powerfully of love, and hilariously of love's pitfalls. She received a Gregory Award in 1993 from the Society of Authors. In 1997, her debut collection, Maiden Speech (Bloodaxe, 1996), was shortlisted for the Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, and her new version of Sophocles' play Philoctetes was staged by Inigo at the Cockpit Theatre in London.

'Eleanor Brown's breathtaking début collection . . . she displays the sharp wit of a Molière, with graceful, cerebral rhymes that leave a bitter aftertaste. Ever insightful and enormously funny, she juxtaposes moving descriptions with killer punchlines' - Time Out

'Rarely have I read so refreshing and engaging a first collection. On display are wit, wordplay and an exhilarating flexibility of rhyme and rhythm. Alongside a barmaid's address to "the Lads" is a succulent celebration of a wedding-cake. Jaundiced Sirens laconically slide closing couplets in, like rapiers. A subtly sustained and cunningly crafted sonnet sequence, assessing an affair, comprises the last rites it abjures. Love's assumptions are laid bare after the manner of a female Catullus or Alceste. Mistress of the telling phrase, Eleanor Brown seems as joyously drawn to her themes, and their expression, "as music draws a dancer" ' - Stewart Conn