Darling

Humour, gender, sexuality, sensuality, identity, racism, cultural difference: when do any of these things ever come together to equal poetry? When Jackie Kay's part of the equation. Darling brings together into a vibrant new book many favourite poems from her four Bloodaxe collections, &quote;The Adoption Papers&quote;, &quote;Other Lovers&quote;, &quote;Off Colour&quote; and &quote;Life Mask&quote;, as well as featuring new work, some previously uncollected poems, and some lively poetry for younger readers. Kay's poems draw on her own life and the lives of others to make a tapestry of voice and communal understanding. The title of her acclaimed short story collection, &quote;Why Don't You Stop Talking&quote;, could be a comment on her own poems, their urgency of voice and their recognition of the urgency in all voice, particularly the need to be heard, to have voice. And what voice -- the voices of the everyday, the voices of jazz, the voices of this many-voiced United Kingdom.