Chris Wallace-Crabbe writes with an alert curiosity about the world and the speculation it gives rise to. He celebrates household objects as well as the textures of the Australian landscape; European ancestors, both familial and intellectual, and the consciousness of animals; the damaged planet and the continuing possibilities of belief; science and soul. Humour and gravity inform his richly orchestrated language. Telling a Hawk from a Handsaw is a collection for a complicated world, both joyous and shrewd.


'A witty, endearingly slangy, yet unostentatiously philosophical Australian poet'. - Times Literary Supplement

'His allies are words and he uses them with the care of a surgeon and the flair of a conjuror.' - Peter Porter


Cover painting Live Music (The Brunswick Club) by Kristin Headlam, 2004 (detail). Reproduced by kind permission of the artist. Cover design www.StephenRaw.com.