Book review: ‘The Bonniest Companie’ by Kathleen Jamie

As I’ve said before, I’m a huge fan of Kathleen Jamie’s prose. Her first two collections of essays, Findings and Sightlines, are two of my favourite books. Reading and re-reading her wonderful prose eventually encouraged me to read her poetry.

I loved two of Jamie’s earlier poetry collections, The Overhaul and The Tree House. I also loved The Bonniest Companie. Jamie’s poetry is not at all showy. She writes with a wonderful, accessible precision—a quality I admire in her prose. I could also relate to many of the humanist sentiments expressed in her poems, especially when Jamie expresses disbelief in an afterlife, and the need to make the most of what time we have left. I also love the way she describes, in a completely un-twee way, nostalgic memories from her childhood. Very much my kind of thing.

Highly recommended.