The Best of (What's Left of) Heaven: The Best of (What's Left of) Heaven

Poetry by Mairéad Byrne

I’ve had to replace my copy of Talk Poetry more than any other collection in the last couple of years – it’s walked out of my house every time I’ve shown it to someone – and I’m preparing for the same thing to happen with The Best of (What’s Left of) Heaven. I think the thing I like most about Byrne’s poetry is that it makes me laugh like a monkey (baring my teeth, mad with fear, involuntary, like something being electrocuted) and like a human being (subsiding into my chair, telephoning someone to read it to them straight away) at the same time. Whether you open it on an imagistic collage or a coruscatingly funny interview, whether a hymn to the act of creation or furious, lyrical invective, it’s a beautiful, angry, generous collection and if you don’t like it you’re a fucking idiot.

—Luke Kennard, author of The Harbour Beyond the Movie