In her new collection, Hearing Things, Anne Beresford listens to the speaking voices of a panoply of characters, both in her head from stories, dreams and people who have died and in the world around her. In the poems we also hear many other make-believe and real sounds menacing footsteps on the stairs, the countless birds in her big wild garden. (A Londoner born and bred, she migrated to rural Suffolk.) The poets sharp ear combines an earthy interest in what is going on, from local gossip to world politics, with a contemplative imagination.