The Hopeful Hat

Poignantly, these late poems are also Satyamurti's nuanced poetic response to having her voice box removed following a diagnosis of laryngeal cancer. Clear-eyed in the face of her own mortality, she produced a series of courageous poems that are, as Carol Ann Duffy said of her work, 'laced with the hard stuff'. They are also graced with Satyamurti's unique and subtle wit.

Carole Satyamurti was preparing these poems for publication at the time of her death, and left the manuscript in an advanced state of readiness. The sequencing of the poems, and the sections they are grouped in, had already been decided by her.