Tom Branfoot - Volatile Book Launch

Local poet Tom Branfoot launches his debut collection Volatile, with readings from J. R. Carpenter and David Dobson.

Tom Branfoot's debut poetry collection explores nature during a time of political crisis, drawing its title from the Middle English use of 'volatile' to name birds and other winged creatures. Pulling apart what it means to dwell, habitat loss appears synonymous with eviction, and birds become fellow travellers in our precarious present.

Featuring the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem shortlisted "A Parliament of Jets", these complex, formally daring poems are concerned with the entanglements between personhood, global catastrophes, and ecosystems. These poems swoop between the unpredictable relationship between a son and their alcoholic parent, fighter jets soaring over the Lake District, and the mercurial rustle between memory and truth when childhood is stored in waterlogged pastures.