Stranger in the Mask of a Deer

Stranger in the Mask of a Deer conjures an elemental, dreamlike narrative ranging from the present to the Late-Upper Palaeolithic, when the British peninsula was gradually reoccupied by humans and animals returning from the greater continent after the Ice Age. Richard Skelton began this book-length poem many years ago with the intention of exploring the history of Britain’s landscape, only for the text to transform into a kind of literary seance, involving both human and other-than-human voices. Its transforming power lies in the accumulative magic of the word as ritual. Skelton’s is a mesmeric lyric, probing the edges of consciousness towards a place where ‘there are always presences / always inherences / things beyond sight.’ Praise: "This is an incredibly moving, essential meditation on where we have come from, where we are, and where we are headed." Kerri Ní Dochartaigh "I've been submerging myself into this book slowly, like a dip into an icy mountain pool. It's unique, intriguing, transporting." Becky Wragg Sykes "A mesmeric, conceptual book-length poem about deep history, time, life & land." SJ Fowler Stranger in the Mask of a Deer is a sustained, book-length exploration of the boundless metaphoric landscapes and symbolically rich deep-time of the mythical unconscious. Peter Mark Adams, Paralibrum A truly remarkable long poem, unlike any other I know ... the impact is extraordinary and, to me, irresistible, with a prophetic pulse to the verse that demands to be heard, even as it explores great silences of time and space, and the inner mysteries of identity and death. James McGonigal, Painted, spoken Thoughtful and thought-provoking ... a dream-like imagining of the end of the last Ice Age. Current Archaeology