This already much-praised anthology is a remarkably stimulating and idiosyncratic portrait of a country. By definition, it is selective, but the selectivity is always enlightening. Sean Dunne eschews chronology and topography, those traditional crutches of the beleaguered anthologist. Instead, he offers a culling of his incredibly wide reading, based on what he calls "inner geography", ranged under such rubrics as "Religion", "The Imagined Country" and "Other Places". One particular pleasure of turning the pages is that you never know what is going to come next; the other chief pleasure is that this anthology, going from Giraldus Cambrensis to Shane McGowan, has no coherent thesis or unified theory about the country to present: its diversity is exactly the point. The work is a worthy memorial to a much-missed poet and critic.
