A Game of Swans begins with a boy reading Homer by the sea, traverses the tangled matter of family history and the myth of the Swan Maiden, and concludes with a set of poems that considers how we might deal with the realities of growing old.

From the finger bone of an ancestor to a Leonardo da Vinci portrait, from the dining room of a rural pub to the real life of folk-tales, A Game of Swans weaves myth and modernity seamlessly through each other, asking what it means to be restrained, and what it might take to be free. Janet Wainscott’s debut collection stares out from the undergrowth, claws hidden in plain sight.

Published 2023 by Sudden Valley Press.
Order from Sudden Valley Press.

“There is a limpid transparency about Janet Wainscott’s poems. They are full of lovely moments and sly glances, and then just when you least expect it, an unfamiliar footstep in the hall – behind the door – to ever so slightly disconcert. A Game of Swans is a fine debut collection from a poet easy and confident in her voice and completely assured in her art.” – James Norcliffe

“In her wide-ranging explorations of time and place, of history and story, Janet Wainscott reminds us that we are not the only ones here. And that the movement from entrapment to flight, like that of ‘a game of swans’ taking off from a hidden lagoon, is one of resolution and a commitment to life. A dream of possibilities and beauty.” – Bernadette Hall