Snail In My Prime - Brossura

"To have heard him adds another pleasure to the reading of the work- but the voice speaks clearly on the page in poems of harrowing intimacy, politics and love. He holds a mirror up to himself: but we can see ourselves over his shoulder, whoever we are" (Carol Ann Duffy Guardian)

"Durcan's... tall stories, dialogues and choruses, remind us that poetry can have popular reach and embody a genuinely countrywide spirit, without sacrificing integrity" (Glyn Maxwell Independent on Sunday)

"Durcan's mastery of tone, his manic confidentiality, his blithe expositions of the seemingly unthinkable, his hypnotic repetitions of what other poets would hardly dare to utter once, all help to give [his work] an air of audacious authority unique in contemporary poetry" (Brendan Kennnelly Irish Times)

"For him poetry is story-telling and his stories are told in a direct fashion that makes them totally accessible... Paul Durcan's poetry sings" (Roger McGough Sunday Tribune)

"Like all first-class comedians, he is deadly serious" (Terry Eagleton Stand)

'The present selection serves to confirm his almost iconic place in contemporary Irish poetry' - Derek Mahon, Irish Times