Taking its starting point from John Donne s prose No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main John Deane takes a period of time and trawls through it for meaning and purpose. Beginning witha simpleisland, each subsequent piece features great figures, suchas King David, and examines the futility of war and the place of poetry in fighting for a more just society. The collection s centerpiece, A Little Book of Hours, journeys through Europe in search of spiritual truth. This collection is a meditation on how the Christian myth is seen to penetrate all of humanity and nature."