This tongue-in-cheek review was shortlisted in the writelink reviewing the situation contest in June 2007. Well, my user name is the same as my pen name and it seemed like a perfect marketing opportunity!

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Conception by Sarah James, £3.99, 44pp, J & D Poetry

This first collection of poems from prize-winning poet Sarah James takes readers on an emotional and reflective journey through pregnancy, birth and beyond. It offers a frank yet largely celebratory look at parenthood, starting with “a ball of genetic string/ pierced by a dart with a DNA tail” in the title poem Conception up to the toddler years when “I should have known then what I know now/ that you were already running rings round me” (Rings).

The choice of poems, both serious and humorous, cleverly strikes that difficult balance between appealing to serious poetry lovers and parents in general. But it is James's scintillating language and evocative range of unique images that give the reader that wow, Wow, WOW! feeling. No surprise then, that some of the poems have won prizes in their own right.

There are a few changes, I might make here and there, particularly to punctuation. But, for a first collection from a writer just 32 years old, this is probably as near to immaculate as it gets.

Conception is now available as a free podcast at www.milltech-systems.co.uk.