'A writer chronicling the life of the land through the stories of its marginalised people' - Alan Franks, The Times. 'Porteous is a highly sophisticated writer, which is what carries her work beyond folkloric nostalgia. To be as alert to tradition as she is requires her to be, paradoxically, utterly modern; which in turn, given her talents (in particular, very ... Read morefew poets can match her ear), makes her an important poet not just regionally but as an advocate of her adopted language to a larger literary readership' - Sean O'Brien, Northern Review. 'History as lifeblood - not as ghosts, but as part of the earth and of us' - Julia Copus. 'Katrina Porteous - celebrates what springs up, unbeautiful, between the cracks left by the post-industrial landscapes of the Northeast, celebrates the endurance of rocks and plant life...and implicitly, too, the survival of human beings as cultures and traditions struggle with change' - Pippa Little, Writing Women. 'She writes a kind of poetry that is regrettably becoming rare, a poetry with accurately observed natural furnishings, a freshness and clarity of language, each poem with its own tune' - Vernon Scannell, Daily Telegraph. Show Less