The Mushroom Summer of Skipper Darling

The debut collection from one of Southern Africa’s most astute critics of poetry, born in 1935, is a treasure. A collection that accomplishes that rare thing in poetry: of being an immediate pleasure even as it demands re-reading and slow contemplation.

With classical form and meter meeting modern sensibility and local image, The Mushroom Summer of Skipper Darling fills a gaping absence in South African letters, and will kickstart an appreciation anew of a strong, steady and significant influence on this country’s literature.