Although I liked a few of Carter's lines, I didn't care for the poetry as a whole. I did, however, like the way she incorporated the idea of "living as performance." I especially loved Hill's quote: "Who controls whom, who is writing the drama and who is the actor (58)?" I don't think I'll ever tire of the concept because I find it to be true every day.

Read the review on my blog here. ( )

To echo others, aside from "Unicorn", Carter's poetry lacked that spark that draws me moth-like to her other work. Rosemary Hill really steals the show here, and her essays were a pleasure to read, providing historical, contextual, and biographical insight to Carter's poems and greater oeuvre. This read was worthwhile for those essays along with the titular poem, and to see a rarer (if lackluster) side of Carter. ( )

This beautiful hardback book is a revelation. I had no idea Angela Carter wrote poetry; nor, it seems, did a lot of people, so this collection of her poems written 1963-71 put together by Rosemary Hill is a welcome addition to Carter’s published works. Familiar themes of fairy tale shot through by violence, degradation and the banality of human behaviour make for a rich, disturbing retelling of the unicorn myth in the title poem, while the material for other poems ranges from a tale written in Middle Scots by William Dunbar to a forlorn look at modern marriage.

The second half of the book consists of a beautifully written essay by Rosemary Hill, which both illuminates the poems and brings to life the 1960s literary scene with clarity, wit and a delicious sense of humour. Her analysis of how the personal pronouncements of the famous Angry Young Men of the late 1950s ‘ran the gamut of bad temper from righteous anger to peevishness’ made me chortle, as did her remark that ‘the emergence of a remarkable number of talented young women writers...made some of the Angry Young Men simply furious.’

So, if you love poetry and / or a fan of this novelist then you must grab a copy down your local bookstore. I highly recommend this. ( )