Echolocation

Echolocation, Terry McDonagh’s new collection of poems for young and old is aworthy follow up to his widely successful Boxes. McDonagh writes with admirable simplicity and finds an almost fairytale-like quality in everyday happenings. The poet moves swiftly between experiences of troubled times but never fails to celebrate sweeter days. He writes ‘In a room full of children, a chinese whisper sets words on fire…’ and it is these words that pull you into the stories the poet tells. McDonagh, like a truly international traveller, observes sharply and examines the complexity of the apparently banal and often shows his canny ability to be a merciless chronicler of misfortune and everyday tragedies and all this with a twinkle in his eye.