Ogre's Wife

Anthony Howell’s first collection for several years moves in unusual directions. Guilt and society’s victimization of those it punishes are among its subjects: it begins with poems concerned with the harm caused by anorexia and moves on to investigate the situation of offenders held in units for `vulnerable’ prisoners. The collection includes two longer poems: `Ode to a Routine’ chronicles the odyssey of one sentenced to commute across London, while the title poem extends a theme of dubious...