There is a delicious sumptuousness to Angela Cleland’s poetry. Words slot into their allotted spaces with satisfying clunks that continue to resound long after you put down this debut collection.

Perhaps the best pieces here are longer ones – a week-length sequence of London morning vignettes; a song-like performance piece about a man sinking emotionally under his own guilt which makes fine use of repetitions; the final poem, which imagines the youthful Shelley setting off fire balloons carrying copies of the Declaration of Rights, is a rare example of a poem in a historical voice working with freshness. This is a varied, interesting first collection from a younger poet.

Angela Cleland’s first full collection is quite a tour de force. Cleland has a taste for the surreal, the quirky, the sinister, and she explores her subjects with humour and a deliciously fresh approach to form, taking risks that pay off. Cleland’s material encompasses every kind of human and other relationship – she is fascinated by personality and by the inner world of her characters. The ways in which she shocks and disturbs the reader are both authentic and enticing, from the spooky sense of isolation in ‘Wool and air’ and ‘Your art’ to the bizarre imaginative longing of ‘Peeling’. The middle section of the collection showcases the poet’s experiments with form, including shape poetry – I enjoyed the inventiveness of ‘Fig 1’ and ‘The Rain Gauge’. This collection is a really good read.

If Templar publishes poets like Angela Cleland it should be the 'City Lights' of British poetry and poetry loving Brits should queue up to this breathtakingly fresh opening of new publishing.

A remarkable and highly enjoyable debut from Angela Cleland. Her poems are skilful, witty and inventive, and her oblique approach pierces the heart of life.

Angela Cleland’s first collection rings true; poignant, quirky and knowing. These assured poems deserve to be heard.

This was a richly rewarding quarter including no fewer than three outstanding publications from new-kid-on-the-block, Templar Poetry Press, run from Derbyshire by Alex McMillen. Of these, particularly notable was Angela Cleland's powerful title sequence in Waiting to Burn.

Memorable chapbook whose poems are always about so much more than their literal subject matter. Cleland trusts her readers to recognize the story of an unhappy marriage in a cat's transformation into a dog, or the divine-human power struggle over forbidden knowledge in a guided tour of a factory.