Paul Sutherland has been writing and publishing poetry since 1970, with ten collections to his name. This monumental new book includes significant pieces from that period, along with new and unpublished works, constituting a personal epic that spans four and a half decades of writing.

It charts the poet’s life from his Canadian roots to immigration to the UK, from agnosticism to Christianity to Sufi Islam, and from natural wonderment to a greater understanding of the world around us. The collection is in turn heartfelt, philosophical, and beautifully lyrical, as Sutherland lays bare for the reader his experiences and perspectives – at once particular and universal. Completely unique, this is an unflinching and forensic exploration of a life lived through language.

This book, the eighth collection from Paul Sutherland, may be the most important, fully-realised work of the poet’s long and illustrious career. Here, ’Journeying’ is an activity, a state of mind, and a wide-reaching metaphor. The poems cover the realities of physical journeying; the thoughts and observations as we move from place to place, an often unacknowledged but vitally important part of literature – and contrast these with scenes of extreme stillness, as in the poet’s memory of a night’s vigil at the bedside of his elderly Grandma.

They also discuss more abstract journeys, along ‘inner paths, outside time and space’, and the perils of retracing one’s steps in search of greater self-knowledge – since, as the author admits, ‘journeying isn’t easy’. The book concludes with the long poem ‘Red Hawthorn-Hedged’, which runs to almost three-thousand words, expanding on the themes raised in the rest of the collection.

This 104-page volume will delight existing followers of Paul's work, and offers new readers a generously-sized introduction to a unique poet; one who demonstrates a singular ability to write to the highest literary standard, whilst maintaining a natural, accessible voice that excludes no-one.