James Brookes was born in 1986 and grew up in rural Sussex, a few minutes’ walk from Shelley’s boyhood home of Field Place. He received a major Eric Gregory Award in 2009 and a Hawthornden International Writer’s Fellowship in 2011. He has published a pamphlet, The English Sweats, with Pighog Press and is currently the Williams Librarian at Cranleigh School in Surrey, where also he teaches. Sins of the Leopard is his first full collection.

• Requiem for an InvasionFealtyManeatersGazetteerOpiates: KaliningradConcerning PlunderAfter a 2nd DonationGattopardo Moff Jerjerrod Redoubles his EffortsHierophantic Head of Mao, Hunan ProvinceRobespierre faces the ScaffoldPortentsA Hometown ExecutionYou Might Very Well Think That; I Couldn’t Possibly CommentPhariseesShrikeAmen to ArtilleryNeck OrderJohnson Beharry VC Dances On IceAwards Night, London/Caina In Clitheroe Keep (1) In Clitheroe Keep (2)Fire and Fleet and CandlelightSeptuagesimal MinkThe English SweatsMons Horse BurialSilent Enim Leges Inter ArmaEric Gill between Wisdom and GaietyTwo Seasons for the Tees-Exe LineNear All Hallows That Great LuciferStar ChamberParliamentsBonfire NightOperation GomorrahOrdeal by Fire, By WaterRough HawkbitParliamentThree Remembrances for Colonel PrideLion in WinterRunning to Field PlaceKhyber Pass CopyAppropriateLucifer at CamlannSurveying the Queen’s PicturesParlementThe Crescent of HearingRecently SightedBadgerCaractacus in the Rape of BramberPlanh Saint Peter ad Vincula (500 years)HMYOI HymnThose Iscariot MotionsParliamentPrussia Cove

In Brookes’s hands, “Britain is real again”, suddenly lit up by the fierce glint of a scouring intelligence.