These are tough poems, full of love and harm, good and damage, rage and compassion. They show us dealing well and also very badly with our kind and with the rest of the living planet. They are made of the rough substance of real lives.

Their hallmark is loyalty: a steadfast, clear-sighted, unsentimental loyalty. Their truth is a ‘being true to’. And they are a beautiful answering back against the worst.

Maureen Duffy reminds us how funny people are, how vulnerable, lovable, bizarre and heroic. Her own voice is umistakeable in every line. And every poem is a sort of fighting between two lines: ‘Mortality’s at best a dodgy state’ and ‘It’s not over yet; rejoice.’