Dinah Read's poetry springs from her great love of the countryside in which she lives and the seas that surround it. Her life experience has been rich and varied and this too is reflected in her writing. From a childhood in the war-torn centre of Bristol, through the teenage years when she learned to sail and to ride and grew to love both people and animals, we follow her to the years when marriage brought the fulfilment of farm life and a young family. As she matured, her interests widened and added both to her subject matter and to her ways of expressing herself. The pieces chosen for this collection are vibrant and deeply felt. They cover a wide range of topics and highlight the interactions of people and animals with the natural world and with each other. Her imagery is most frequently visual and she takes great pleasure in wildlife and in landscape though the message is always full of emotion and at times subtly spiritual.