CAMPER VAN BLUES: Salt, 2008 * Jane Holland's second full-length collection of poetry, BOUDICCA & CO., was published by Salt in 2006. 'Extremely powerful and varied ... Holland has both the clarity for the reader and the mastery of language to say what she means in a way that makes the brain tingle with both shock and pleasure ... This collection is outstanding.' Angela Topping, Stride Magazine, April 2007 'I reached the fourth section of the book, the Boudicca sequence, and everything went electric ... There's a touch of Vicki Feaver about the violence and the cool delight in blood and innards, but the work is quite distinctive. I didn't for one moment think about feminist directions -- only the inner rage of the emotion, the amazing sweep of the imagery and the way I was dashing from poem to poem, completely compelled. In her first poetry collection, nine years ago, Holland wrote (in 'Not a Love Poem') "Write me a line that cuts straight to the bone." She has written a great many such lines here -- and they are very, very scary.' Helena Nelson, Ambit 2007 "Jane Holland's Boudicca & Co is a book of adventurous, resonant inventions. As the title suggests, it offers a new view from the interior - of both country and psyche - in which history and geography are co-opted in effortless interplay. It's a work of synthesis, and of poetic and emotional maturity, in which Holland emerges as a true craftswoman, a supple and graceful thinker with an effortless grasp of line, at the heart of the English lyric tradition." Fiona Sampson, Editor of Poetry Review "Boudicca & Co. is a bold re-imagining of Britishness. Steeped in myth and medieval poetry, this is a land of 'ruins under rain,' hares, oaks, gargoyles and the Green Man. At the heart of it, embodying both Britain's fierce beauty and its bloodied past, is Boudicca, and her voice is a startling achievement: modern, pitch-black, funny, and yet hauntingly lyrical." Clare Pollard, poet '... we need only compare Holland's work with the anti-war 'poetry' of Harold Pinter to gain some indication of how rich and rewarding her response to modern conflict is - by shifting methods towards the imaginative and narrative elements of poetry, rather than the rhetorical and political. In this sense, the 'Boudicca' sequence has a great deal in common with David Harsent's Legion, which represents a similar attempt by a non-combatant poet to engage intelligently with the realities of war. This is, frankly, an outstanding collection, and Holland, as a result, can now count herself amongst the front rank of contemporary British poets.' Simon Turner, Gists and Piths, 2007 " 'the grip/ of the wheel, a licence to roam.' Jane Holland's poetry smoulders and blazes. Take your deepest breath, and go with her." Alison Brackenbury, poet "Jane Holland modernises myths and mythic characters, and so achieves a kind of resonant timelessness in poem after poem." Brendan Kennelly, poet Visit Salt Publishing for some brand-new free PODCAST recordings by Jane Holland from her new book BOUDICCA & CO, plus a short video interview: http://www.saltpublishing.com/books/smp/1844712893.htm