Justin Quinn, Metre, Spring 2005

Patrick McGuinness's collection, The Canals of Mars, published last autumn by Carcanet and shortlisted for the inaugral Roland Mathias Prize for Welsh Writing in English, is an impressive debut. McGuinness translates from French, most recently Stephane Mallarme, and perhaps that accounts for the different acoustic of his poetry: it's quite unlike the work of any other British poet we know. Haunting, delicate and exact in their observations, McGuinness's poems also manage to express familial tenderness in a manner quite distinct from the usual tawdry tones and epiphanies that are used for such subject matter at the moment. Warmly recommended.