My Dog is a Carrot

Dogs, glasses, school and relatives are recurring themes in Hegley's work, and reappear in a variety of guises in his latest collection.

Hegley plays with words and ideas, which results in poems that are wonderful to read aloud, and also to use as a springboard for would-be poets to try their hand at the genre.

Every page, and every poem is different: they are printed in different shapes and fonts, on different backgrounds, and there are poems about colours, poems about poems, acrostic and alphabet poems, all quirkily illustrated.

Hegley's wonderfully surreal approach allows him to consider both the silly and serious subjects with great power.