Latch

Published by Lagan Press in November 2010
978-1-904652-89-2
Paperback, 21 x 13.5 cm, 72 pages
RRP £9.95

Latch was Paul Jeffcutt’s debut collection of poetry. In 2009 this manuscript was Highly Commended by the judges of the Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Prize, and it was enhanced through a Manuscript Development Award from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

Latch was selected as The Book of The Month, in July 2011, by the Ulster Tatler. ‘Latch is a wonderful collection from a very talented poet. The tone is confident and assured, the content is thought-provoking and, as a whole, it stokes passion and emotion within the reader. From start to finish Latch is an engaging read which leaves you wanting more.’

‘Latch is Paul Jeffcutt's debut collection and its poems sing with a remarkable assurance. Bracing in their intellectual and geographical sweep, his poems are not afraid of engaging with painful emotion. Whether writing about family, childhood, politics and cultural history, the natural world, or the strangeness of elsewhere, he speaks with insight and candour. At the core are deeply moving poems of love and loss.

Skilled and memorable, Paul Jeffcutt's language is grounded in the everyday. Firmly rooted, these poems move deftly round what it is to live in the modern world, seeing not just mordant ironies but also the moments of transcendance, of passion and of transformation. Latch is an immensely readable and thought-provoking collection.’ —Patrick Ramsey