The Swerve

'When I saw Drenthe, in deep February snow, I knew I had to write about it,' says Julith Jedamus. Each of her poems is necessary, a passionate dialogue with a subject and a form. She is a poet of extraordinary technical resourcefulness that matches a precision and integrity of vision. Once read we cannot forget her snowflakes, landscapes or the dramas of relationship - familial, romantic, historical - which provide the living pulse of this collection. She is not a religious poet, but in her embodiments a religious instinct finds expression. Her relationship with the Thames, where she is an avid rower, is of a piece with her relationship with the stories of Hans Christian Andersen: her poems include her, and us, in a wider, flowing world.