RaveLiterary ReviewThe publication of these collected letters represents a welcome rebalancing. With every sentence, one feels Gunn stepping into the light ... an intimate portrait of Gunn as friend, lover and man. That’s not to say we always get the ‘real’ Gunn. This was a poet, after all, who was uncomfortable putting himself at the centre of his work ... it feels too as though the life and personality come through in the letters in a way they don’t in his poetry, particularly the earlier work ... Letter and poem complement each other; we are invited to hold them up at different angles, allowing new light to strike the page ... There is intrigue and gossip to be had, of course ... The book allows us to encounter Gunn at every stage of his life ... Moving through his life in this way is unbearably poignant. The toll of the AIDS crisis is laid out here in stark detail ... In this book, Nott and his fellow editors offer us a chance to move closer to Gunn and know him better.
