'with Michael Blackburn we must celebrate something exciting: a diversity of voices, and the idea that voice, like form, can be made to fit the poem...' Ian McMillan in The Wide Skirt

'short, lucid poems in which the angle of vision is of particular importance. I enjoyed these poems in the way one would enjoy an exhibition of enigmatic line drawings...' Anne Stevenson in Arts North

'marvellous poems...a revelation...they impress by force of sheer rightness...Blackburn's talent is hard to analyse but I would isolate his alarming clarity of thought, his economy of imagistic means and, above all, his gift for pungent, appropriate metaphor...' Michael Ayton in Iron

'Blackburn's talent is versatile, charging his work with a wide variety of voices and perspectives...He isolates his subjects with the same care as he chooses his words. I can't imagine another writer doing this as well as Blackburn does it.' Tim Cumming in The North

'The most striking thing about Blackburn's work is his reluctance to be content with one approach...though there is a consistency of purpose and poise throughout...reminiscent of the great European poets...' Mark Robinson in Scratch

'History comes home to Michael Blackburn every day, retelling its less widely reported atrocities and unintended ironies...his is the compassionate voice in a dispassionate universe...Blackburn displays a controlled and powerful imagination.' Eva Salzman in the Times Literary Supplement

`The Last of Harry is a sort of combo poem, prose piece, biography and bulletin board. It makes good use of hypertext - keywords in poems about Harry link to events in his life.' - Robert Nurden in Wired

...the mature Blackburn, confident, assured, penetrative...' Tears In The Fence

'Blackburn's voice is exact, fitting the poem to his chosen subject.' Steve Davies in The Wide Skirt

'Blackburn's text is a perceptive and often very funny evocation of the layers of talk among the locals in a pub, delineating characters like a down-market version of Dante's spirits...' Cathy Courtney in Arts Monthly

'lucid, moving poems...This is poised and delicate poetry, that sees Blackburn display a maturity and confidence in his conclusions.' David Harmer in The North

'lean and intelligent...this is a rich and beautiful book' - Tim Cumming in Billy Liar