Fallen warriors, a conquistador, a cat; an 1815 namesake; a father, a mother, a childhood rhyme; a boxer, an explorer, a stuffed Welsh fish... "Frieze" entertains a host of shadows, all the dead who inhabit our lives. It is at once elegy and explorat...

These lines, from the title poem of "Waterloo Teeth", set an historical aftermath in vivid motion. John Whale's first book of poems explores our capacity to articulate the pain and pleasure of such experiences – our own, and those of others distant f...