This gathering of poems represents, in the words of the author, a 'mining of a satisfying late seam of my personal development'. Artworks form the jumping off point for a number of the poems, and there is a semi biographical thread to others, as the poet looks back to formative experiences in his childhood and youth. These are counterbalanced by reflections on that experience in older age and, as a retired Church of England priest, on what it has meant to try and live with the expectations of a vocation. Throughout, there are trains and railways, music, birds, stained glass and painting, family and walking the high hills. The 'profoundly satisfying volume' is warmly introduced by the poet Alan MacGillivray.

Born in Wigan, Francis Minay grew up and was educated in Edinburgh during the 1950s and 60s. He graduated from Edinburgh College of Art, and gained his certificate from Moray House Teacher Training College, before moving to Cambridge to train for ministry in the Church of England at Westcott House. Parochial appointments in Kent and Devon led to Yorkshire, where he combined the pastoral care of a small rural parish with a unique post as part of the Chaplaincy to Arts & Recreation serving the Northern Dioceses of Newcastle, Durham and York. In retirement, Francis lives with his wife Janie in the North-West Highlands of Scotland, and continues to minister to two small congregations of the Episcopal Church of Scotland.