The skill is in how the book turns this constrained use of poetic resource to advantage: the unshowy diction and the refusal to flaunt its reading makes the voice appealing, while the ‘minutes and minutiae’ of the subjects and the conversational phraseology generate intimacy, and the candour sympathy.

..it’s a collection that’s easy to read but not dull, everyday but not trivial, basically contented but not without suffering, and enlivened by humour and its mix of cultures.