Firmly rooted in the past, these poems branch out from Old English and traditional ballads to the language of televised archeology and the travel guide, twisting from folk song to fairy tale to café gossip. In a tangled conversation between past and present, the voices of Vikings, poets, lovers, talking skulls, shipwrecked sailors, house painters, disgruntled middle managers, migrants and others jostle each other on their intricate journey from Rough Spun to Close Weave. Praise for Lady Godiva and Me – ‘Guilar has brought together a cast of characters that speak out of history and from the present time, real people who live and breathe with engaging frankness. They are varied in personality, held here in small jewels of poetry that sparkle with wit and strength. These are people worth meeting.’ – Joanna M. Weston, Poetryreview Ca ‘I am impressed by the writing, which demands full and careful attention. To read these poems, the reader must inhabit the world, or the voices, of the writing; must engage with the rhythms, and the spare poetic structures. The poems are conversational, in the sense that they are made to be read aloud as well as on the page; but their sometimes declaratory structures are tight and taut without being confining.’ – Bronwyn Levy, Text