Diehard

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Mick Imlah's first gathering of poems for some years, DIEHARD derives from a larger, major work in hand called 'The Lost Leader'. These are extraordinary poems of wit and high intelligence, executed with formidable technical skill and honest feeling. They are like a lost poetic history of Scotland brought to light, a modern ironic history, from AD 500, by way of a guided tour of Iona, to yesterday at a Dumfries bus depot, from Fergus Mor to John Smith, from Michael Scot to Walter Scott. Imlah's dramatising power, his eloquence, and gift for narration never fail him. Nor do his ear for the demotic and his delight in the comic.