Liz Lochhead has built an impressive reputation as poet, playwright and performer attracting a large and admiring public. Dreaming Frankenstein and Collected Poems stands as a monument to her early work: four collections Memo for Spring (1972), Islands (1978) and Grimm Sisters (1981) and the title volume together provide a complete record of her poetry from 1967 to 1984. In Dreaming Frankenstein human relationships, especially as seen from a woman's point of view, are central. Attraction, pain, acceptance, loss, triumphs and deceptions all are made immediate through her imagery and acute powers of observation and through her flair as a storyteller.