the night Trotsky came to stay

ISBN-13: 978-1-902382-906 : £7.95

Available directly from Smith/Doorstop Books and all good book stores.

"She is a poet willing to take risks and able to challenge readers at many levels -- emotional, spiritual and technical -- through her exceptional and acute powers of evocation. Holub's concept of 'serious play' comes to mind when reading her poems."

Peter Carpenter

“Sensuous detail, intellectual curiosity and an echoing, confident music all make this a fully-imagined poetic world.”

Jane Draycott

“The poem, 'The Night Trotsky Came to Stay' suggests one of those poetic re-workings of a minor historical event, in Allison McVety’s hands we’re in an entirely different, witty and weird world.”

Anne-Marie Fyfe

“This is a collection full of life; and of lives: working lives, fighting lives, everyday lives touched by war, loss, struggle and exploitation, shaped by the landscapes, the cityscapes they are set against. But these are also stories of survival, told with humanity and tenderness, with the zest and relish of a consummate story-teller. Here are ordinary lives made extraordinary, illuminated by the piercing light McVety’s poems shine on them.”

Susan Utting

“The language of Allison McVety's poems is always alive; and her warmth and humanity complemented by a steely truthfulness.”

Michael Laskey

"The Night Trotsky Came to Stay is an impeccably clear and sculpted collection. Ernest Hemingway said a book was the visible part of an iceberg; the knowledge a writer brings - the years of experience and rewriting - is submerged. Allison McVety’s first book shines. It signals the opening of a career of a writer from whom we can expect wonders."

David Morley