Highway Cottage

Highway Cottage weaves the story of a strange homecoming.A young poet travels to the heart of the English countryside - back to the West Country village where he grew up.Descending into the valley where the small riverside community still resides, he finds himself within a dreamlike landscape, peopled by uncanny figures: drone operators and hunters; half-familiar friends; local historians, and braying councillors trying desperately to oust a community of Travellers.Hovering between reality and folklore, the locale is at once idyllic and in decay; the visitor is both unsettled and soothed by it.Slowly, we start to sense that both villagers and poet might be under threat - not just from the future, but from the past. This book-length sequence of poems represents a ground-breaking artistic achievement by acclaimed poet Ralf Webb.Blending the eerie musicality of children’s rhymes with echoes of traditional balladry and free verse, the collection swells to an extraordinary chorus.With great