A Short Treatise On Mortality

In Douglas Reid Skinner's eighth book of poems, a lifetime of writing becomes the writing of a lifetime. With verse ranging from the philosophical to the surreal, Skinner ponders the most universal of questions and concerns - how to live, and, perhaps more crucially, how to die.

Through landscapes of ploughed fields, dream highways, and building sites alike, our human concepts of memory and literature are observed, retraced, or even deconstructed. Behind the easy intelligence and humour, Skinner remains a flagbearer for the traditions of South African poetry in English.

Poems are written for writers and loved ones who have passed, others for those who have most of their years to come - all held in expert balance by a master of his art.