Ian Duhig's most musical collection gets off to a rollicking start with his phantasmagorical ballad Nominies, which takes its title from a Yorkshire word meaning 'children's chants'. This tour de force sets up the book's themes of inherited treachery and formal engagement - fed by obsessions ranging from religion to homelessness and poetry - which culminate in Who Killed Freddie the Dolphin?, Duhig's blood-curdling lament for the creature whose cruel murder was one of the darkest deeds in recent Northumbrian history. Poetry Book Society Special Commendation.