Selima Hill’s poetry has been called wanton, wildly imaginative, tender, intelligent, dangerous, defiant, subversive and startling. All these qualities are strongly present in her latest collection, Red Roses, which delves into territory her earlier books were only starting to uncover. The new book is orchestrated to read as one single movement fed by variations on a theme, with each rapid-fire poem blooming suddenly into the light.

These are brave and disconcerting poems, which don’t wear a smile to impress or hide behind. Their bleak yet engaging humour isn’t a ploy or a plea for sympathy but a facing up to truth. What they offer readers isn’t uplifting sentiment but honesty to experience and a shared sense of recognition that denial or evasion will never heal a wound.

‘Wayward, funny, terrifying. Her writing scintillates with hatred, love and absurd insights’ – Gillian Beer, Financial Times

‘Every page reveals her unique ability to invert the world and shake it, until it reveals its truth’ – Kathleen Jamie & Maurice Riordan, PBS Bulletin

‘Hill is a unique voice in British poetry, handling central subjects with wit, great metaphorical beauty, and deep clarity. Her two most characteristic features, the off-the-wall images and no-holds-barred straight talk, work flawlessly together’ – Ruth Padel & Sean O’Brien, PBS Bulletin

‘Brilliant mischief’ – Independent

‘Selima Hill’s world is strange, dream-like, secretive… delicate, moving and vaguely sinister’ – Carol Ann Duffy, Guardian