Madame Ecosse

Marion McCready’s highly anticipated second collection, Madame Ecosseis a very Scottish collection of lyrical poems. Political and personal by turns, these poems explore the natural world, history and myth, and the female experience across the centuries.

A brilliant, bloody and bittersweet garden of verse. A trail of flowers and trees leads through Madame Ecosse, which explores a rich history of women's lives with philosophical strength and sensory power. The book weaves together precise and earthy imagery, compelling narratives and a steadily singing poetic voice. The outlook is sharp and feminist: a feminism of the body, the mind and the personal political experience. And the garden is rooted in Scotland, the poet-gardener critically questioning the shape of the nation with a careful touch and, where necessary, shears. – Harry Giles

Brimming over with poems that are fierce and tender, subtle and strong, sensuous and sensual, celebratory and mournful, this collection delights, moves and inspires. In work that is both experimental and true to tradition, McCready draws on nature, myth and history to explore the lives of women as leaders, lovers and mothers down through the ages to the present day.– Jane Clarke