**WINNER OF THE COSTA POETRY AWARD 2018**
**SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2018 FORWARD PRIZE FOR BEST COLLECTION**
A war-poem both historic and frighteningly topical, Assurances begins
in the 1950s during a period of vigilance and dread in the middle of the
Cold War: the long stand-off between nuclear powers, where the only
defence was the threat of mutually assured destruction.
Using a mix of versed and unversed passages, Morgan places moments of
calm reflection alongside the tensions inherent in guarding against such
a permanent threat. A work of variations and possibilities, we hear the
thoughts of those involved who are trying to understand and justify
their roles. We examine the lives of civilians who are not aware of the
impending danger, as well as those who are. We listen to the whirring
minds of machines; to the voice of the bomb itself. We spy on enemy
agents: always there, always somewhere close at hand.
Assurances is an intimate, dramatic work for many voices: lyrical,
anxious, fragmentary and terrifying; a poem about the nuclear stalemate,
the deterrent that is still in place today: how it works and how it
might fail, and what will vanish if it does.
