The characters that live and breathe in Jake Hawkey’s impressive debut poetry collection are playful and spiritual, often both defensive and desperately vulnerable. Taking its title from the language of addiction, with its circles of prevarication and excuse, But & Though leads us on a boy’s journey through a childhood overshadowed by parental alcoholism.

These are poems on the move in the tapestry of London life – from the hospital ward to the back rows of the bus – where the desire for escape is also, paradoxically, a ‘Herculean search for home’. But & Though is a testament to the kinship ties that bind us together, however fraught they become, and a celebration of the working-class identity that defines the poet’s native south London. With a voice as spiky and irreverent as it is gentle, Jake Hawkey is a refreshing new talent in English poetry.