Tramp in Flames

Following the exceptional acclaim for his first two books, Farley might have been forgiven for resting on his laurels with his ‘difficult third’ – but Tramp in Flames instead finds him driving his formal ambition and remarkable imagination harder than ever. A book of considerable emotional daring and sometimes Wordsworthian sweep, Tramp in Flames is the work of a meticulous archivist of our cultural memory, and sets the palimpsest of the present hour on a light-box. It also shows Farley rapidly becoming one of the definitive English voices of the age. ''Resonant without being flashy . . . lines that will stick with you for a really, really long time'' Mark Haddon ''Funny, observant, brilliantly musical . . . streetwise, erudite, elusive, but very accessible'' Ruth Padel, Financial Times ''Farley is one of our most vital and engaging voices. Even a title can twist at the familiar, commanding our attention. He has the knack of both establishing and undermining the securities of memory purely through turn of phrase'' W. N. Herbvert, Scotland on Sunday Poetry Book Society Recommendation