Lying and truth-telling are a matter of choice; our innate capacity for mendacity is the source of all story-telling. The title poem sets the thematic tone for this collection which explores the interface between fiction and reality. In 'Fanfic', Pugh travels into cyberspace where devoted fans discuss, rewrite and reinvent cult-tv. A second sequence, 'Lady Franklin's Man', details the long search for the Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin, his widow's resilience and enduring love shining through in atmospheric recreations of the land-, sea- and mind-scapes of the mid-Victorian era. Other poems include a dubious paean to the 'vampires of mercy' and the prize-winning 'Toast', a heat-soaked homage to young builders golden and melting on hot pavements.

"It is a sustained sixty-line meditation on human suffering and cruelty, rising to a powerfully affirmative crescendo ... the arsonist's hell is Sheenagh Pugh's paradise, a place where language is it's own reality."
Gerard Woodward, TLS

Sheenagh Pugh is known to thousands of poetry readers for 'Sometimes', her much anthologised 'poem on the underground' and for her Selected Poems, a set text in schools. She currently lectures in Creative Writing at the University of Glamorgan, and has won numerous prizes for her work, including the Babel Prize for translation and the ACW Book of the Year in 2000.