In this striking new collection Catherine Fisher mixes vivid and particular poems about the Welsh landscape such as "The Four Seasons" and "Field-walking", with historical monologues such as "Incident at Conwy" and scenes from myth like "Merlin on Ynys Enlli". With an archaeologist's care, she sifts her imagery from the past and examines it in minute, careful detail. The title sequence, based on the journals of James Hartshill, a traveller on the voyages of Captain James Cook in the south Pacific in the eighteenth century, is a triumph of her technique. The famous explorer's stubborn and heroic character and his adventures in the perilous frozen wastes or the Antarctic and among the natives 'sudden and dangerous as children' of the lush Pacific islands are marvellously portrayed.