Red River Valley

A Poetry Book Society Recommendation 2026

In Red River Valley, the new collection from one of Britain's most treasured living poets, Ian McMillan makes poems from family life, everyday surrealism and the effect of austerity on the village near Barnsley where he's lived all his life. Language is the playground and form is the rewritten rulebook in work that tries to sit on the page and in the ear at the same time.

After all these years, he's still trying to find his voice; maybe it's here in Red River Valley, the name of his dad's favourite song.