In this first collection of her work, the poet re-visits her country childhood, the loss of innocence, love, heartbreak and death, and reflects with admirable frankness on those universal rites of passage common to us all.
"I have felt engaged with the work, and responsive to its emotional charge" :Professor Carol Rumens GUARDIAN BOOKS ONLINE 'Poem of the Week' blog.
"She lets detail speak, often exquisitely, through things as they are; there is no attempt to escape through fantasy" :Jay Ramsay, Poetry Editor, CARDUCEUS JOURNAL
Lucy Walton's interview with Mary Pargeter reveals the author's inner thoughts: FEMALE FIRST ONLINE magazine.
The first poems present an idyllic childhood running free in the exquisite landscapes near Selborne, immortalised by the 18th Century naturalist Gilbert White. That blessed landscape, now part of the South Downs National Park, is still referred to as Gilbert White country. With superb views across the South Downs, the rambling house of her early years had been built for entertaining, but is now the family's no-nonsense working market garden.
Sadly, to the child's dawning awareness come warning signs that all is not well. Her father has not long returned from four years in a Japanese prisoner of war camp. The experience has left inevitable scars. Tiny and intelligent, she observes and struggles to understand. As she grows up, next come poems dealing with young love - emotional intensity, gradual decline and the trauma of loss to which she herself admits a contribution. Dealing with grief contributes to the third part of her collection.
In her early 20s, Mary's parents both died. Thus she must tackle another kind of loss, as well as anger and other raw emotions, finally coming to terms with her life's unavoidable patterns.
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