Switch: The Complete Catullus by Isobel Williams Ana Sampson Byrne’s hymn to his brother

Byrne’s hymn to his brother is bardic

These are poems which look beyond the self

‘Staying Alive is a book which leaves those who have read or heard a poem from it feeling less alone and more alive’ – John Berger

whose fragmented memories of political turmoil in twentieth-century China are sensitively threaded through the book in an eight-part poetic sequence

Switch: The Complete Catullus by Isobel Williams Ana Sampson Byrne’s hymn to his brotherDuring the latter phases of covid, Isobel Williams completed the challenge of completing her celebrated translations of Catullus. The poems that had proved impossible when she was preparing Shibari Carmina, published to acclaim in 2021, relented. Now she has completed what almost eluded her. 'Translating Catullus has been, for me, like cage fighting with two opponents, not just A Top Poet, but the schoolgirl I was, trained to show the examiner that