Echoes

The new book from Laura Dockrill is a collection of modern-day fairytales, poems and retellings of classic stories, all with a slightly sinister edge. Reminiscent of Roald Dahl, Tim Burton and even Grimm, the stories take on a not-quite supernatural world of Dockrill's conjuring.

Reinventions of The Princess and the Pea- featuring a future WAG and some stoned surfer dudes, Hansel and Gretel- an interesting wry look at child abuse and even classic ghost stories about the banshee all get a wonderful retelling, full of energy, wit, charisma and attention to detail. Dockrill flips between so many landscapes, characters and settings with ease that her multi-narrative stories are both dense and page-turning. The illustrations add to the slightly ghoulish feel with the hand-scrawled, terrifying open-screaming faces and tapestries of horror.

Some of Dockrill's performance poems get a written outing here, in all their glory. If you've ever seen her live and experienced the screaming banshee delivery she is known for, you'll be glad for a reading aide as the stories encapsulate the other-worldly slots of love, obsession and mickey-taking.

In the scribbled drawings and wild imagination, there is a clear attention to detail here and Dockrill has managed a triumph here: harnessing the tour-de-force live presence into pages. It's not an easy task. But she has managed it. If you see one poet this year, make sure it's Laura Dockrill. If you read one collection of ghoulish fairytales and hilarious sideways social commentary this year, it's Echoes.