The Deer of Tamnies is Martin Turner’s first full-length book of poems since Trespasses, published by Faber in 1992. Of the earlier collection, Stewart Brown wrote in Wasafiri, this measured and accomplished first collection . Turner spreads his net wide. the poems invariably repay the careful reading… all are marked by a sense of seriousness, both in their crafting and their complexity, their refusal to simplify . worrying the nature of ‘truth’ and of faith.” Of ‘Maidanek’ in the present collection, Ted Hughes wrote: Precise and mysterious, surprising and clear, strange and purposeful -- like looking at a landscape through a filter out beyond the ultra-violet. I keep re-reading it.The Deer of Tamnies is larger in scope, expanding in terms of religious depth, historical range and autobiographical candour.

There are many voices here and, seeking to fulfill the definition of poetic beauty offered by Dante, they are ‘entirely responsive to each other.’.