The Ogre's Wife Author:Anthony Howell Anthony Howell's first collection for several years moves in unusual directions. Guilt and society's victimization of those it punishes are among its subjects: it begins with poems concerned with the harm caused by anorexia and moves on to investigate the situation of offenders held in units for `vulnerable' prisoners. The collection includes tw... more »o longer poems: `Ode to a Routine' chronicles the odyssey of one sentenced to commute across London, while the title poem extends a theme of dubious empathy explored by Browning in `My Last Duchess'. As always Anthony Howell's poems are cool, intelligent, entertaining and simply different from anything else being written. `The best of Ashbery's disciples is without doubt Anthony Howell', said Robert Nye in `The Times'.« less