The posthumous collection from one of our greatest contemporary poets a powerful exploration
of life and death illness and grace wonder and beauty. 'A master of language' HILARY MANTEL
John Burnside's last collection of new poems gathers around a single theme - mortality - and
draws on his faltering health and earlier glances with death creating a powerfully moving
exploration of memory forgetting and the seven ages. Here as always there is a clear-eyed
curiosity a sense of wonder at the beleaguered natural world and its endless mutability - its
hidden beauty often suddenly disclosed - and a deep faith in its old gods. Burnside was always
as much a spirit-guide as a poet and here in the Empire of Forgetting we are never far from
a fresh alertness to the world to epiphany - a sudden spiritual manifestation. There is a
sense too in these last poems of a man having found a 'dwelling place' - a sense of rest and
peace and settlement with the world. A state of grace. 'Among the best writers of his
generation fully voiced and perfectly pitched... He now leaves behind a body of work that will
only grow stronger as new generations discover it' ANDREW O'HAGAN 'A titan of literature....
His passing leaves a gap not only in our literature but in our ability to exist in the world.
He increased the possible ways of our being' KATHLEEN JAMIE
