Berg is a lively, thoughtful, notable first collection. The vigorous, various poems are both intriguing and entertaining. They are often tightly-woven fictions, dramatic monologues replete with their own unique settings and outcomes.

Casgliad cyntaf o farddoniaeth Hilary Menos. Ceir yma gerddi bywiog, myfyriol.

Although she has been successful in many high-profile poetry competitions and anthologies, this is Hilary Menos's first full-length collection. It is a most thought-provoking and entertaining one.

Her present life as an organic farmer in Devon furnishes quite a lot of her material, including the vivid realism of ‘Pastoral’, ‘Judgements’ decent ministering angels at the local slaughterhouse, and the sharply observed ‘Neighbours’. Her wider concerns for the planet inform many more. There is the title poem, whose ‘Berg’ and her sisters invade London:

They came like brides, majestic over Barking Reach,
queued to check-in at the Barrier...
waltzed towards Wapping...
saving the last dance for the Post Office Tower.

‘Ephemeroptera’ sees humans ‘dishonoured by the past’ and asks, ‘And what do you say, you who would, without thought, have fisted the world into a small green ball / and stuck it in your mucky pocket for keeps?’

While there are very personal poems like the concluding ‘Wish’ for her child and several memories of her father, she also enters into worlds of fiction and fantasy with sharp detail and humour. The common tedium of weekly shopping is enlivened by an imaginary friend – this week Ingobar the barbarian. ‘Next week I've got Elvis.’ (‘Off My Trolly’). She may transport us to Cuba or Uzbekistan but always for the human contact; the story rather than the scenery.

Hilary Menos has little patience with poets who write in personal code, but while her words are generally accessible, they have layers of implication, usually lightly carried. Her poem about Magpies (or marriage?), ‘One for Sorrow’, is at first glance a whimsical fantasy suggesting the ominous birds should be forcibly linked in twos to promote our peace of mind but in the last lines: ‘Then they too would hobble and flap, each pulling / a different way, pecking and fighting but having to declare to all who passed, in a strained shriek, "Joy!"’ The whole meaning turns on that third word ‘too’.

She can be shocking, tender and very funny. This collection introduces a strong, original voice.

Caroline Clark

It is possible to use this review for promotional purposes, but the following acknowledgment should be included: A review from www.gwales.com, with the permission of the Welsh Books Council.

Gellir defnyddio'r adolygiad hwn at bwrpas hybu, ond gofynnir i chi gynnwys y gydnabyddiaeth ganlynol: Adolygiad oddi ar www.gwales.com, trwy ganiatâd Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru.