Stonepicker is Frieda Hughes’s second collection. Her first, Wooroloo (Bloodaxe, 1999), was a Poetry Book Society Special Commendation. She has also published several children’s books, and her paintings have been shown in many exhibitions.

‘An accomplished painter, she brings to her poetry the same landscape of contrasts, in her vivid descriptions of light and dark, struggle and release, the cleansing properties of fire. She is a courageous poet with a rich palette and the ability to create some startling and memorable images’ – Maura Dooley & Jamie McKendrick, PBS Bulletin

‘Her book is about aloneness, about cathartic confrontation and rebirth…The position of the confessional voice in this poetry is quite deceptive – the “I” can be both public and personal. Such poems outflank the obvious. This is poetry come out of siege’ – John Kinsella, Observer