Rhian Edwards Knihy

In a kingdom on the brink of chaos, Rayleigh Kalastone, the heir to the throne, grapples with her controlling mother's disdain and the pressures of the royal guard trials. While secretly observing the contestants, she encounters Wren Netero, a captivating warrior whose attraction poses a dangerous risk. As dark druids attack the kingdom, Rayleigh is thrust into a web of betrayal and intrigue, forcing her to navigate trust, love, and the harsh realities of power to save her realm from destruction.

'The Estate Agent's Daughter' is Rhian Edwards' eagerly awaited follow-up to her multi-prizewinning debut 'Clueless Dogs'. Her voice is both powerfully personal, local to her Bridgend birthplace, and performative, born to be read aloud. In the title poem, the protagonist has become a surrealist house, with dream-like details 'carpeted with sycamore seeds and cherry blossom throughout'; the sturdy realism of a writing desk 'nudged/ to the brink of the bay', as well as points of sharp irony: 'all mod cons'. This poem foreshadows both the heartbreak (a shattered first marriage) and joy (the birth of a daughter), that feature in the work that follows. We also have pieces of sly irony, of disillusioned dating. There is an engaging diptych devoted to a recently deceased grandmother and grandfather, who died within months of each other, whose vivid personalities with all their tragi-comic elements, shine through. The author combines her visceral skill for description, for these are poems based in the body, with a feminist forthright courage to speak of difficult things.