Martin Zarrop

Is Anyone There? Martin Zarrop

Martin Zarrop's Is Anyone There? offers the reader witty and accessible poems, which often look back, imaginatively and movingly, on the past. The return of Elvis 'from the far side of the moon' ushers a poem into an exploration of old friends, while sci-fi movies offer a way into memories of growing up. Later poems reflect on the emotional implication of scientific and technological advances, how it really feels to live in the age of the smartphone and the satnav. The author is adept at a range of forms and tones, is capable of writing both humour and deeply moving elegy and, above all, one feels that here is a poet who really cares about the reader. To paraphrase the title of one of the many excellent poems here, in the hunt for happiness, one need look no further than spending some time with this great collection. Jonathan Edwards