Like the rhapsodists, the storytellers of ancient Greece, A Pretty Sight shapes voices of the past and present into a stitched song lifted and sounded toward the next century. Haunted by ‘time’s frame / that dark shape near the edge of the canvas,’ O’Meara’s new book explores aspects of culture, art, war, rebellion and technology, offering defiance amid decay.

‘O’Meara is a poet of the personal. Of the person. In and amongst the social documentary and human observation at which he excels, here is a writer prepared to put feelings on the line and to argue his case with the reader. This is proud, felt, and affecting work — I can’t think of many other poets so prepared to engage and so equipped to succeed.’ —Simon Armitage