The poems in Vuyelwa Carlin’s How We Dream of the Dead show the richness of diction and the piercing intensity of image that we have come to expect from this distinctive writer. The book opens with the long 'To You a Son, Wordless and Fair' that chronicles the loving and sometimes stormy relationship of a parent and a handicapped child. Other work in this section focuses on characteristic themes based on landscapes, myths and scenes from Shropshire history. Section Two is entirely devoted to the series 'How We Dream of the Dead' and fully explores death, its rituals, and what follows, both for the dead and those that are left behind. The final part of the book, 'Songs of Alfred', is a moving set of poems based on the life of King Alfred, who, after four of his brothers, reigned in ninth century Britain.