'Here is a magnificent poem of poems: a surging, truth-bound voyage that offers no easy purpose, acceptance, or ending.’ – David Morley on the pamphlet of Notes on Water, in The Poetry Review (Autumn 2022)

'Dark, funny, wise, terrifying. She is searingly matter-of-fact about the most painful recesses of the human heart… She dances round every corner with a grace that many more seasoned writers would die for’ – Jo Shapcott

‘Dalton looks in the face of despair and tells its story with unnerving calm’ – Siân Hughes, TES

‘She seeks out the fractured minds and lives that live in darkness and reconstructs them with tenderness and skill’ – Tracey Herd, Stand

‘In contemplative ebb, Dalton’s formal composure breaks as surely as the Matthew Arnold of ‘Dover Beach’; her words fragment, unequal to the task of transfiguring bereavement. Towards the end of this, by turns harrowing, by turns cathartic, long poem, the one half of ‘Notes on Water’ that deals with the loss of her partner is subsumed beneath the deluge of water whose terrible effects were felt in real time in the Calder Valley floods. And if resolution cannot be proffered, a window is opened on the nature of mental suffering and the dissolution of self in the catacombs of grief.’ – Steve Whitaker, Yorkshire Times, on Fantastic Voyage

'As an exploration of different aspects of the self, Amanda Dalton’s Fantastic Voyage journeys through time and space, inner and outer worlds. [...] This collection is a voyage of discovery, of loss and the tentative beginnings of recovery, with the body as a vehicle of travel. It is rich and full of life.' –  Sally Baker, The North

Amanda Dalton is a poet and playwright. Her debut How to Disappear was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection in 1999, and was followed by Stray in 2012. Amanda writes extensively for BBC Radio 4 and 3 including original drama, poetry-dramas, classic adaptations, re-imaginings of film, and lyric essays. Her theatre writing includes text for outdoor and site-specific performance, and drama for young people including commissions with Manchester’s Royal Exchange, Sheffield Theatres and Keswick’s Theatre By The Lake.

 9     Fantastic Voyage

    10     Belly
    10     Takotsubo
    10     Gut
    10     A Ghost Story

    11     Look Inside!
    12     When Andrea was 7
    13     Auntie Irene says
    14     One day I watch
    15     Andrea’s father
    16     One day I ask
    17     Mum says Nancy Gardiner
    18     Janet Bradley says
    19     One day I go for a colonoscopy
    20     Peter B says
    21     Aged 9, Andrea doesn’t know
    22     One day, I was sawn in half

    23     Notes on Water

    39     Haunts and Apparitions
    41     Nights I Squat
    42     Magic
    44     December 1979
    45     Three Hauntings
    45        1  Pelican
    46        2  Girl in White with Trees
    47        3  Man Dressed as Bat
    48     Missing
    49     The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary
    51     like a tree
    53     The Possibility of Fog
    54     Ten Signs of Possession
    54         1  Superhuman Strength
    55         2  Knowledge of Previously Unknown Languages or Speaking in Tongues (glossolalia).
    56         3  Unnatural Body Movements
    57         4  Appearance of Wounds that Vanish as Quickly as They Appear
    58         5  Paranormal Capabilities
    59         6  Living Outside the Rules of Society
    60         7  Being Persistently Ill, Falling into Heavy Sleep and Vomiting Strange Objects
    61         8  Being Troubled by Spirits
    62         9  Being Uncomfortable, Ugly and Violent
    63         10  Making Sounds and Movements Like an Animal

    64     Aftermath

    67     Untitled
    68     Fantastic Voyage


    70     Notes
    71     Acknowledgements