The Book of My Enemy

Reading these poems is like listening to a talking book, which infests the poems with personality, with that familiar braggadocio, that strictly upbeat delivery . . . The poems here have skip, insights, timing and agreeable passionIndependent

Page after page of The Book of My Enemy confirms James has the primary, sine qua non gifts of a poet. He rejoices in language, and he shows enormous skill in using itSunday Telegraph

If you are vacillating over whether a couple of bottles of pinot blanc might, in the short run, prove more fun than a poetry book, then just flick to the first page and the title poem of this volume. James writes with exquisite perception and surgical precision; he is a poet of powerful argument and emotional forceThe Times