Vampires

Shortlisted for the Michael Marks Pamphlet Award

'Vampires is exhilarated and radiant, bold and bereft. The Halloween of these poems thins the veil between worlds.' Stephen Sexton

'This is a childhood haunted by gender-bending bats, Belinda Carlisle and the chartreuse windchimes of Mega Drive - inhale it like a thick cherry slush puppy and leave nothing behind.' Chrissy Williams

Matthew Haigh's Vampires is a rare book: devastating both for its dazzling linguistic flair, and its moving central story-an elegy to a lost, beloved aunt. Rich with references that place us firmly in the late 80s and early 90s, it reminds us that 'childhood is leaping from a bridge into mist'. It's a heady read, in which family life bleeds into gothic fantasy, into video games and arcade classics-with their endless potential for death and rebirth. Every word is lacquered, effulgent, cut like crystal, packed with E numbers, fizzing with energy. Vampires is a dream resurrected, a surreal MTV video, an ode to our beta-version hearts.