A noctuary is a diary for the late hours. In Niall Campbellâs poems, this is a time for reflection, discovering what it means to be a young father, anxious, caring and protective, deeply connected to the new, precious life of another human being. The deftly lyrical poems in his second collection illuminate a night world of disturbed sleep and half dream, midnight feeds, the quiet of snowfall through the hours of dark. At the same time the grown man now living in the city reconnects with his own childhood on South Uist in the Outer Hebrides, the territory of his highly praised first collection, Moontide. Hearing his fatherâs voice in how he calls to his son, other images of the islandâs seascapes, myths and wildlife return to him in Noctuary.
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