On a Ledge, New and Selected Poems stems from six previous collections, the first published in 1931, and includes work composed shortly before the writer's death in 1992. These thirty-three poems are a celebration of Bryan Guinness's joie de vivre, exploration of love, dedication to family, and delight in music, painting and the natural world. They draw inspiration from settings in Ireland and southern England, and disclose a voice which expresses a richly contoured inner landscape. His writings, with their paradoxical charm, soft colourings and ease of language, address themes both deeply personal and common to humanity, and they form a distinctive contribution to over sixty years of English and Irish letters.