The poems in Surrender approach life from the viewpoint of experience – as a daughter, parent, writer, and confused human. Cathy Grindrod explores how we connect and disconnect in the ‘Great Game’ of life – with the past, place, work, nature, the animal world and ultimately, with others – in an exploration of what it means to be human.

Surrender is about what we learn as we follow our own path through gain and loss: when to fight and when to surrender, and above all, how to be ourselves, how words and writing can be used for good, and how important it is to trust our own voices, to speak out for what we most believe in and to ensure we are heard.

Cathy Grindrod is a former Derbyshire Poet Laureate. At heart a poet, she took a break from poetry to write the libretto for an oratorio, More Glass Than Wall (nominated for a BBC Radio 3 Composer of the Year award); a memoir; and three plays – Just Cuckoos, Always in the Afternoon and Swing, all performed in the East Midlands. She has published two pamphlets and three full collections of poetry. Her last collection, The Sky Head On, was published by Shoestring Press twelve years ago, and she has come fully back to poetry with Surrender.