In the face of loss - human, natural, temporal - McQueen finds salvation in language. Often her work is about artistic endeavour itself: the desire to freeze time, the realisation that this is impossible - Sarah Quigley

The most remarkable phenomenon of the English poetic scene ... has been the advent, or perhaps I should say the irruption, of Gavin Ewart - Philip Larkin.

The simple lack / Of her is more to me / Than others' presence. Edward Thomas, 'The Unknown'

The eye, it cannot choose but see; / We cannot bid the ear be still; / Our bodies feel, where'er they be, / Against or with our will. Wordsworth, 'Expostulation and Reply'

All this was water / in the beginning. Between / us are our legends - 'Chrysanthemum', Diana Bridge

An engraver in short, sharp slashes that go deep. Andrew Salkey

You must be careful not to deprive the poem of its wild origin. Stanley Kunitz.

We've all led raucous lives,/ some of them inside, some of them out./ But only the poem you leave behind is what's important. Charles Wright (from 'Littlefoot')

Her poems are voyages of discovery. Literally. Over and over she writes about the journeys, physical and metaphysical, that are transformative experiences - Sarah Maguire, Poetry Review

Allen writes poetry that is limpid, very subtle and marvellously wise. - William Boyd

“The poet is a lifer. Anyone who gets into the game will soon start wishing that there was a version of it with lower stakes, but there isn't.”

...one of the best, most generous, and most brilliantly readable poets currently making poems in America. - David Baker, 'Poetry', on Rodney Jones