The second work in the "Oxford Poets" series by Tobias Hill, this collection has a narrative feel, demonstrated in poems which depend on his nocturnal, somewhat ferret-like, eye and an emotional stance somewhere between distance and intimacy. Essentially we are trailing through our own mean streets, following the tracks of rivers and canals, listening to the sounds of the animals in their cages, particularly from London Zoo, and picking up impressions as if they were bits of interesting rubbish that signify something important.