Vampires / Matthew Haigh

Shortlisted for the Michael Marks Pamphlet Award 2022

‘Vampires is exhilarated and radiant, bold and bereft. The Halloween of these poems thins the veil between worlds.’ Stephen Sexton

‘This is a childhood haunted by gender-bending bats, Belinda Carlisle and the chartreuse windchimes of Mega Drive – inhale it like a thick cherry slush puppy and leave nothing behind.’ Chrissy Williams

Matthew Haigh’s Vampires is a rare book: devastating both for its dazzling linguistic flair, and its moving central story—an elegy to a lost, beloved aunt. Rich with references that place us firmly in the late 80s and early 90s, it reminds us that childhood is leaping from a bridge into mist. It’s a heady read, in which family life bleeds into gothic fantasy, into video games and arcade classics—with their endless potential for death and rebirth. Every word is lacquered, effulgent, cut like crystal, packed with E numbers, fizzing with energy. Vampires is a dream resurrected, a surreal MTV video, an ode to our beta-version hearts.

   You spun me around toward October burning
   the night so buttered with amethyst.

PAPERBACK    ISBN: 978-1-913268-21-3    PUBLISHED: 18TH NOVEMBER 2021