Olwen May for their feedback and encouragement. Also to Andrew Forster for his facilitative and thoughtful editing of the pamphlet Herd. Particular thanks are due to Judith Willson for the sustenance of our discussions, the acuity of her reading, and all her help, not least in arranging the order of this book. I am very grateful to all at Carcanet, especially to John McAuliffe for his steady, insightful and attentive editing, to Andrew Latimer for his typesetting and beautiful cover design, and to Michael Schmidt for the invaluable space he continues to keep open for poetry, and for his support of my better work. Thanks too to Jazmine Linklater and Alan Brenik and everyone on the Carcanet team. And finally, my thanks to Sheila Kershaw, who professes to know nothing about poetry, but is my first and often wisest reader.

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