The prize-winning poet's brilliant second collection
Andrew McMillan's first collection, physical, was the first poetry collection to win the Guardian First Book Award; it also won a Somerset Maugham Award, an Eric Gregory Award, a Northern Writers' Award and the Aldeburgh First Collection Prize. His second collection, playtime, won the inaugural Polari Prize, and his most recent collection is pandemonium. McMillan is a Senior Lecturer at the Manchester Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
[An] equally page-turning second collection… McMillan is 30, but
writes with the melancholy understatement for an older writer…
McMillan’s pared-back style puts great weight on each word, often
with magnetic results… McMillan wears his influences on his sleeve
– Thom Gunn, Sharon Olds’s explicit Odes, a flicker of Book of
Matches-era Simon Armitage – yet brings them together in a voice
that is confident, captivating and distinctly his own… Any fans of
physical worrying how McMillan could top one of the most widely
praised debuts of recent years should breathe a sigh of relief:
playtime may be a quieter collection, but it’s a deeper, richer one
too.
*Telegraph **Poetry Book of the Month***
Andrew McMillan’s second collection, playtime, is every bit as
impressive as his first, physical… He seems attuned to the world
around him and he has a sly sense of humour at his command. He is
more than promising now.
*Literary Review*
[In playtime] McMillan makes it clear that the poetics of physical
wasn’t a one-off. As with all the best second outings, this
collection firmly establishes his patent… [a] fully realised,
deeply humane collection.
*Guardian*
McMillan scrutinises the violent idealism of masculinity in
monologues that are both tender and steely… told with courage,
invention and charm.
*Sunday Times, **Books of the Year***
Andrew McMillan's award-winning debut collection, physical, a raw
and tender exploration of gay love and desire, heralded him as a
new force in contemporary poetry. This, his second book, only
cements that reputation... these poems are insightful, revealing,
honest and brutally tender.
*attitude*
playtime is admirably devoted to intimacies and it has a tenderness
to it even in its most private of moments... This is a triumphant
collection of poems.
*Totally Dublin*
By returning to familiar ground and deepening his engagement with
it, McMillan makes clear that the poetics of physical wasn’t a
one-off. As with all the best second outings, this collection
firmly establishes his patent… [a] fully realised, deeply humane
collection.
*Guardian*
Vivid, accessible and honest, sometimes uncomfortably so.
*London Review of Books*
An unobstructed exploration of an important subject. McMillan is
writing not only see-through but see-beyond poetry.
*Observer*
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