The submerged land of Lyonesse was once part of Cornwall, according to myth, standing for a lost paradise in Arthurian legend, but becomes an emblem of human frailty in the face of climate change in Penelope Shuttle's new poems. The second part of the book, New Lamps for Old, is a collection of poems searching for meaning in life after bereavement.
Something Dark tells the true story of Lemn Sissay who as a baby was given up by his Ethiopian mother in the 1960s. An autobiographical performance about Sissay's upbringing in a racist care system. Something Dark is now a set text on Edexcel's Contemporary Black British Literature: A Guide.