Poet and novelist Nick Laird's second collection, On Purpose, is released this coming month, and having read an advance proof copy (I'm reviewing it for the winter issue of Ireland's excellent literary magazine, The Stinging Fly), I can confirm it's well worth the nine quid that Faber will most probably pirce it up at. You'll have to read my review to get the full lowdown (or at least my version of it), but there are some very impressive poems in there, substantially building on the styles and themes explored in 2005's To a Fault. Oh, and as a taster, US and Boston University literary magazine AGNI have early versions of a couple of poems from the collection, 'Statue of an Alderman in Devon', and the atmospheric and richly descriptive 'Hunting is a Holy Occupation'.
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