The best things come in little packages. This latest mini-anthology from Candlestick belongs to our new ‘Christmas Collection’ series and contains brand new poems by ten leading contemporary poets. The poems range from the surreal to the tenderly nostalgic, taking in the perils of an over-crowded shopping mall, the bah… humbug of Christmas enjoyed in glorious solitude and a jaded Mary who has spent far too long on the back of a donkey. We also meet a vibrant, unconventional Christmas Mother: “A brook was coiled on her head in loops of auburn hair with aquamarine banks threaded with lizards and snakes…” – from ‘Christmas Mother’ by Pascale Petit If Christmas lapses all too easily into traditional familiarity, these poems will provide a bracing antidote a little something to indulge in while the plum pudding is taking its toll. Poems by Simon Armitage, Panya Banjoko, Alison Brackenbury, Ian Duhig, Jonathan Edwards, WN Herbert, Lorraine Mariner, Pascale Petit, Gregory Woods and Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch. Cover illustration by Katie Tooke.