John Hegley

I'm not much of a poetry reader but this caught my attention and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Hegley has the knack of capturing everyday affection with warmth and a wry humour. 16 March 2018

Lovely story about a boy who collects sticks and uses his imagination to play with them. Really nice part when he drops his stick and lets it go and finds another one. My little girl loves sticks and finds it hard to drop them, this helps her understanding. Just beautiful.

These were poems about people, pets and other creatures. They are organized alphabetically, with each letter corresponding to a poem. The cover made me think it would be a cute, fun book of poems, but I was kind of disappointed. The art work was all in black and white and the poems were kind of boring.

The poems are mainly amusing, some laugh-out-loud funny; many are autobiographical, and some are painfully honest about what appears to have been a difficult childhood. Dogs are noticeably prominent, as are the Romans, scouts and trains. And spectacles. Mustn't forget spectacles.

My favourite short poem in the collection is My Doggie Don't Wear Glasses, and my favourite longer poem is He Saw His Dinner on TV.