playtime

[An] equally page-turning second collection… McMillan is 30, but writes with the melancholy understatement for an older writer… McMillan’s pared-back style puts great weight on each word, often with magnetic results… McMillan wears his influences on his sleeve – Thom Gunn, Sharon Olds’s explicit Odes, a flicker of Book of Matches-era Simon Armitage – yet brings them together in a voice that is confident, captivating and distinctly his own… Any fans of physical worrying how McMillan could top one of the most widely praised debuts of recent years should breathe a sigh of relief: playtime may be a quieter collection, but it’s a deeper, richer one too. -- Tristram Fane Saunders * Telegraph **Poetry Book of the Month** *
Andrew McMillan’s second collection, playtime, is every bit as impressive as his first, physical… He seems attuned to the world around him and he has a sly sense of humour at his command. He is more than promising now. -- Paul Bailey * Literary Review *
[In playtime] McMillan makes it clear that the poetics of physical wasn’t a one-off. As with all the best second outings, this collection firmly establishes his patent… [a] fully realised, deeply humane collection. -- Sarah Crown * Guardian *
McMillan scrutinises the violent idealism of masculinity in monologues that are both tender and steely…told with courage, invention and charm. -- Jeremy Noel-Tod * Sunday Times, **Books of the Year** *
Andrew McMillan's award-winning debut collection, physical, a raw and tender exploration of gay love and desire, heralded him as a new force in contemporary poetry. This, his second book, only cements that reputation... these poems are insightful, revealing, honest and brutally tender. * attitude *
playtime is admirably devoted to intimacies and it has a tenderness to it even in its most private of moments... This is a triumphant collection of poems. -- Elaine Cosgrove * Totally Dublin *
By returning to familiar ground and deepening his engagement with it, McMillan makes clear that the poetics of physical wasn’t a one-off. As with all the best second outings, this collection firmly establishes his patent… [a] fully realised, deeply humane collection. -- Sarah Crown * Guardian *
Vivid, accessible and honest, sometimes uncomfortably so. -- Alan Bennett * London Review of Books *
An unobstructed exploration of an important subject. McMillan is writing not only see-through but see-beyond poetry. -- Kate Kellaway * Observer *