Physical (Paperback)

'Andrew McMillan's wide-awake debut anatomises male desire and its often thwarted expressions; these fresh and engaging poems enter the temple of longing in honest search for what may be found there, which turns out to be joy, desolation, secret languages, the possibilities of transformation and of disappointment borne in every touch.' - Mark Doty

'Physical really announces Andrew McMillan and it feels like a long while since a first book has managed this degree of tenderness and candour, sensuality and vulnerability. "There is beauty in the ordinary", and every poem in this urgent, unflinching, exceptional debut affirms this.' - Paul Farley

'Thom Gunn, the lodestar of this collection, said that poetry comes from obsession and passion. Few first books are as passionate, as carnal, as this one. McMillan's work is a glorious, vivid exploration of the body as the loved and broken ground on which we meet and are transformed.' - Michael Symmons Roberts

'Unforced, unbidden, these are poems that call you by your real name, poems that have seen you naked, poems that find out your secrets and gift them back. Physical is alive with subtle reflections on masculinity, love and loss; a record of how we forget ourselves and how we remember. It will captivate and change you.' - Helen Mort

'His seriousness of tone and address is electrifyingly fresh and lyrical. He takes the weight of language seriously but balances it with play and deft control...Andrew McMillan is already a poet of considerable achievement.' - David Morley