Jackself

Summary

Set in the rural Cumbria of the poet's childhood, this collection constructs a mythological alter ego called Jack — part folk figure, part frightened child — through whom it explores the forming of a self, the darkness within pastoral innocence, and the enduring power of rural England's older imaginative traditions. Polley's language is dense with dialect, nursery rhyme cadence, and a fairy tale logic that makes the familiar landscape feel both intimate and uncanny. The book is a feat of sustained imaginative world building.