Little Anchors

Lorraine Marinerâs slant humour and eye for the peculiarities of human interactions have won her comparisons to Stevie Smith, that distinctly English poetic sensibility. In Little Anchors, her third collection, Mariner looks below the surface of the âquintessential English familyâ, discovering hidden heritages and family secrets and a new understanding of what it means to belong.

She uncovers the Greek heritage that her late father had carefully concealed â" like many migrants of his generation â" reclaiming both his name and extended family as she travels to get to know them. Alongside is the story of a beloved Irish grandmother, whose institutional and migrant experiences intersect with the troubling âherstoriesâ of twentieth-century Irish culture.

A transatlantic love affair brings a new rhyme with her familyâs migrations to the US, while London works its magic and draws these strands of identity together again. George Michael, âItâs a Wonderful Lifeâ, Jane Eyre and the longueurs of lockdown also make appearances.

Lorraine Marinerâs absorbing new collection is about the little anchors that hold us to people and places and keep us from going adrift.