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Catching a sudden look of defiance from his granddaughter inspires Hugo Williams to take up his pen and write this deeply moving new collection of poetry - the first since I Knew the Bride (2014), shortlisted for the Forward and T. S. Eliot prizes. He navigates assuredly from thoughtful reminiscences of childhood and accounts of the war, through various climes and sensitively drawn relationships, to grim humour in the hospital ward and growing older with its attendant doubts and disappearances. The collection retains the same mischief, frankness and joie-de-vivre that have earned Williams so much praise and readership.

Hugo Williams was born in 1942 and grew up in Sussex. He worked on the London Magazine from 1961 to 1970, since when he has earned his living as a journalist and travel writer. He is the author of more than a dozen collections of poetry, including I Knew the Bride (2014), West End Final (2009), Collected Poems (2002), Billy's Rain (1999), which won the T. S. Eliot Prize, Selected Poems (1989), and his Eric Gregory Award-winning debut, Symptoms of Loss (1965). A selection of his freelance writing appears in the essay collection Freelancing: Adventures of a Poet (1995). His additional honours include the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry, the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, and the Cholmondeley Award.