Hoping It Might Be So. Poems 1974–2000.

First edition. 8vo. Pp. [xii], 226, [1]. Black cloth, lettered in gilt to spine. Jacket design by Claire Brodmann.

Poetry Book Society recommendation. A selection which brings together all of Kit Wright's previous collections for adults as well as three dozen new poems. The title poem refers to Thomas Hardy's final line in his verse "The Oxen," about the old folk superstition that on Christmas Eve the beasts would be kneeling by the manger. "[A]ll through his work there is that poignancy, darkness, brush with despair, which marks great comic work." –Ruth Padel, Independent on Sunday