Poetry Book Society

Of the eight books on the T S Eliot Prize 2011 shortlist, only seven have so far been reviewed in the broadsheets. Whilst Esther Morgan's Grace has so far escaped the attention of reviewers, her collection is proving immensely popular with PBS members who have been ordering it in their droves since its appearance in our Winter Bulletin. Described by our selectors as an "elegant and profound" collection, there is praise for her "spare, resonant poetry which aches for, and often discovers, instances of transcendence or transfiguration".

Reviewers have found much to treasure in The Bees, the new collection from the Poet Laureate. Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Mark Sanderson describes Carol Ann Duffy as "a poet alert to every sound and shape of language". Liz Lochhead writing in The Guardian agrees, describing Duffy's "pursuit of pure pleasure in language: sounds, rhymes and half-rhymes, clever consonances and assonances, sheer love of words, the simple saying of them, the surprise of hearing them new again". Danielle Chapman in The Financial Times describes the poems in this collection as "sparer, purer and often more musical than ever before".

Sean O'Brien's November, published in April this year, has plenty of admirers. Kate Kellaway in The Observer writes "O'Brien is pitch-perfect, never swanks and is amazingly versatile". She continues, "His fresh, exact, unfancy approach to language is a tonic". Fiona Sampson in The Independent refers to O'Brien as a "masterful writer" who includes both beauty and truth in his verse. Paul Batchelor in The Guardian finds these poems to be O'Brien's "most doubting and vulnerable poems to date", describing the collection as "an artistic triumph".

Earlier in the year saw the publication of David Harsent's Night to great acclaim. Frances Leviston, writing in The Guardian, identified the collection's focus: "Loss is the abiding theme: lost bets, lost loves, lost light" and goes on; "Harsent's lines are incredibly supple, stretching and looping, snapping back, never coming unstuck". Fiona Sampson for The Independent applauds poems which "which fill the mouth with pleasure and beg to be read aloud", concluding that "Night is Harsent's finest book to date". Kate Kellaway in The Observer writes that "Harsent has a dreamer's eye and an unerring ear. ... Harsent alludes to loss in so many ways but his poems are treasures - all gain".

Farmers Cross by Bernard O'Donoghue was reviewed by Paul Batchelor in The Guardian who commends the poet for "achieving a soft-spoken intimacy with the reader". He continues; "His tact and scrupulous restraint are matched by his artistry". Lesley McDowell in The Independent writes; "Bernard O'Donoghue ... reminds us of the continuity of the earth and those who live on it and work it. Life and death, as ever, side by side".

On reading Leontia Flynn's latest collection Profit and Loss, Suzi Feay in The Independent identifies "a poet forever oscillating between the misery and joy of life, with an engaged, watchful sensibility". Fran Brearton in The Guardian detects the emotional core of the collection in "its struggle to reconcile an inner life with external pressures". She hails Flynn as "one of the most original and accomplished poets of her generation: her voice is distinctive, and her technique as lightly and deftly carried as her learning".

John Burnside's Black Cat Bone has Fiona Sampson celebrating "a poet whose rapt, floating verse conjures up effects of great beauty in both the ear and the imagination". Writing in The Independent, she defines his unique gifts thus: "This combination of beauty and abjection, a tonality found nowhere else in British poetry, has brought Burnside a cult readership". M Wynn Thomas writing in The Guardian describes this latest collection as "a tour de force of liminal expression ... that ends, appropriately, not with settled conviction but with a readiness to be persuaded".

Daljit Nagra's latest collection, Tippoo Sultan's Incredible White-Man-Eating Tiger Toy Machine!!! (surely a competitor for the longest and quirkiest poetry title on record) has not been widely reviewed in the broadsheets but nevertheless garnered high praise from Kate Kellaway writing in The Observer: "No special pleading is necessary for the wonderful, contradictory combination of broken English and runaway fluency or the sheer exuberance with which words hit the page. It is a delight: brokenness made whole".

The eight poets shortlisted for the T S Eliot Prize 2011 will be reading from these collections at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre on Sunday 15th January 2012. Tickets are on sale now from Southbank Centre ticket office on 0844 847 9910 or go to the Southbank website.