Before he started writing plays, many of which have been acclaimed internationally for their inventiveness and adventure, Frank McGuinness published poems in newspapers and magazines. Booterstown, his first collection, contains the fruits of his recent return to poetry.
This compassionate and candid book moves impressively between sure, confident assertions and the brave, tremulous risks of uncertainties and wonder. Although it contains a number of elegies, Booterstown sings ‘the glory of the body’ and celebrates comforts and faiths constantly manifest in the human spirit. These are lovely gentle poems.
When he writes directly and with great personality in a style which is immediately his own, McGuinness is moving and memorable. This is a refreshing and most welcome voice in Irish poetry.
— Philip Casey, Cyphers
The lyricism and poetic strengths of these poems will carry them on beyond the book. McGuinness’ concern for the ordinary, the everyday, the vital in routine life and love is granted a sp0ecial resonance in this remarkable collection.
— Fred Johnston, Books Ireland
. . . in the poems of Booterstown, McGuinness generally deploys his own vigorous, self-assertive, celebratory and compassionate voice . . . the robust vigour and candour that permeate the poems in Booterstown offers a welcome relief from the deadening suburban mundanity that so often here now masquerades as poetry.
— Michael Smith, The Irish Times
