In her first collection of poems, Alison Flett has chosen a high-risk strategy, in that the poems are written in strong Edinburgh street language transcribed phonetically onto the page. This involves risk because it produces something that looks neither like the Queen's English nor like anyone's idea of Standard Scots; and that means that some people, at least, may treat the work less seriously, thinking that it looks odd, or evening comic.

But those who take the trouble to sit down and read these poems aloud will find themselves in the presence of a formidable poetic energy and sensibility, strong, passionate, and subtle. These are powerfully feminist poems, in a rumbustious and confident way that we could use more of, at the moment. They are deeply rooted in the real experience of working-class women in Scotland now. They're full of anger, but also of self-knowledge, and profound compassion for the victims of violence, both physical and emotional, a subject with which she often deals. And of course, they bring you into the presence of a writer with a wonderful gift for expressing huge amounts of complex meaning with tremendous economy, compression and passion. So well done, Alison Flett, on this first collection of poems, Whit Lassyz Ur Inty.

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