“The poems are funny, irreverent, moving and never sentimental. You can recognise yourself in them, recognise your family. They are warm, full of compassion; [...] a shining bright light.” Jackie Kay.
This collected edition commemorates the 10th anniversary of Julia Darling’s death, and includes a substantial selection of unpublished work. Julia Darling’s first novel Crocodile Soup was published by Transworld and was long-listed for the Orange Prize. Her second novel, The Taxi Driver’s Daughter, was published by Penguin, and long-listed for the Man Booker Prize. She also wrote many plays for stage and radio, including a linked series of plays under the collective title Appointments which were broadcast on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour shortly before her death.
In 2003, Julia Darling’s first full-length collection of poems, Sudden Collapses in Public Places, was published by Arc and was awarded a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. At the time of her death, she was still revising her novel The Cure for Dying, the successor to The Taxi Driver’s Daughter.