Jan Norton’s debut pamphlet, Relief Map, traces her journey from a working-class Welsh Valleys childhood to where she finds herself on the map now. These no-nonsense poems are packed with rich detail, evoking vivid memories of that childhood and the people who populated it. Although the poems leave the Valleys, Wales never leaves the poems, and through laughter, love, sorrow, motherhood and challenges, Norton observes families, friendships, passion and pain in the light of her origins. The Valleys are firmly established as her lodestone for evaluating her current position and direction of travel.