"Lucy Crispin would make a brilliant scene-of-crime officer, because she notices everything, and understands its significance. And there'd be nothing second-hand about her report to the CID, either, for she uses language with a vigour and freshness that puts one in mind of Dylan Thomas or Gerard Manley Hopkins.

Crispin has a dazzling gift for representing her subjects. Situations, things, nature, atmosphere, all come to life eagerly from her pen. She has a sharp eye and a sensitive response, and no patience at all with anything remotely resembling a cliché. There's nothing contrived; she's always fresh and apt. Hers is a strongly individual vision, accessible, interesting, compelling. She knows her craft, is faithful to her daemon, and she has a reliably consistent voice. What particularly distinguishes her for me is a rare kind of personal poetic courage, for her tones are honest, compelling, both disciplined and passionate, both serious and moving-a rare enough combination in the contemporary poetry scene. And the human condition? She writes with equal delicacy of what lies under the skin, what moves the human heart. Such gifts are rare, even in the world of poetry. I certainly look forward to more of her work, which deserves to be far better known."

- RV Bailey

"This collection, with its beautifully described, precise imagery, draws you in to moments and scenes and senses: shape, texture, colour are here in abundance. The language... has a wonderful music. So many different moods here-joy, anger, mischievousness; and an invitation fully to enter my own world, parallel to the poems', with the reminder that the only time we have is now."

- Jeff Cowton, Head Curator, Dove Cottage

"Lucy's poems are intensely rich interior landscapes, finely and vividly observed, in which she explores reflections on her life and the lives of others. Her verse includes occasional experiments with sonnet and villanelle forms with brief flashes of self-deprecating humour; but the essence of her work is a piercing insight into life's episodes set against the beauty of the natural world."

- Roger Iredale