The Mirror Trade

"The title poem of Zoe Skoulding's new collection is set in Murano, home to the Venetian glass-making industry. The alchemical processes of mirror-making, its 'furnaces and transubstantiations, / amalgams of tin and quicksilver' become a guiding metaphor for the poet. Here, cityscapes are haunted by memories both personal and historical, most notably in the series drawing on diaries kept by a grandfather in the RAF while he lived in India, China and Iraq. Formally inventive, restless, inquisitive, these poems capture our attention by subverting expectations."--BOOK JACKET.