Mr and Mrs Scotland Are Dead: Poems 1980-1994

Mr and Mrs Scotland Are Dead is a seminal volume in modern Scottish poetry. Shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize, it was a Poetry Book Society Special Commendation. It includes most of her poems from Black Spiders (1982), A Flame in Your Heart (1986), The Way We Live (1987), The Autonomous Region (1993) and The Queen of Sheba (1994).

‘Genius is no stranger to the work of Kathleen Jamie. With each successive theme to which Jamie turns her vision she brings the gift of insight and mystery…poetry of stunning clarity and musicality’ — The Scotsman.

‘With The Queen of Sheba Kathleen Jamie has produced the best individual collection of poems by a woman living in 20th century Scotland. The book establishes her eminence among Scottish poets of her generation. The precision and resource of her language have never been combined more impressively than here’ — Robert Crawford, The Scotsman.

This fierce, blanched, singing verse is exquisitely gathered by a fine ear: here is a poet who knows when to break her lines, how to warm her syntax, how to repeat and exhort, how to tilt and dangle James Wood, London Review of Books.