Vertigo & Ghost

Vertigo & Ghost knocked the breath from me. Such furious, fierce, ecstatic poems, at once brutal and heartachingly tender; I lay awake at night unable to stop thinking about them. Mothers and children, girls and women, their vulnerabilities and sorrows, fears amidst grave danger, their beautiful animal selves. Against a frightening darkness, these "sore jewels" radiate wild white-heat.

Liz Berry

Though this is only her second collection, it’s already clear that Fiona Benson is an exceptional and exceptionally gifted poet. She has a fine ear and a sure hand. Her poems engage with what in our inner lives is most crucial and most at risk. There are poems in this book that scour the skin and must be read.

David Harsent

Vertigo & Ghost explodes into furious life with a series of poems and fragments about the Greek god Zeus... jagged, staccato poems that shoot down the pages like lightning bolts... an addictive, thrilling, sickening experience.

John Self, Guardian

This extraordinarily moving collection is a bold confrontation of violence against women. Vertigo & Ghost is one of the darkest, bravest and most unsettling collections I have read in a while.

Kate Kellaway, Observer

[A] tour-de-force... [Vertigo & Ghost] has generated a lot of (justified) buzz... poems of lasting power.

Tristram Fane Saunders, Telegraph *Poetry Book of the Month*

[Benson] is bravely and unfashionably, a high Romantic.

Tristram Fane Saunders, Daily Telegraph

An exceptional achievement.

Paul Bailey, Literary Review

Promise me you'll read these aloud... [Vertigo & Ghost is] brilliantly chilling... Flick to a random page, take a deep breath, and dive in.

Tristram Fane Saunders, Daily Telegraph, **Books of the Year**

Misogynistic violence, ancient myth and modern rage confront each other in moving and dynamic verse.

Maria Crawford, Financial Times, *Books of the Year*

Benson is one of the finest English poets writing today.

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