Gorilla Ballerina (Troika) by Neal Zetter

Oh, what a parson’s egg of a book. There are some interesting poems in here but too many of them begin well and somehow peter out; they seem to lose their rhythm and too many of the rhymes feel contrived. One or two of the verses are just plain bizarre – I found the one about having a bath with the dog oddly unsettling! The author is a popular performer. Perhaps more attention to scansion and a touch of sympathetic editing (some of the pieces are too long) would help his poetry work better on the page. Having said that, the book does show how one can play with words and introduces us to all manner of animals, brought to ‘life’ by illustrator Julian Mosedale. TUC