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Hemlock & Honey
Paperback
Publisher Price: $14.99
ISBN13: 9781916830547
Publisher: Hedgehog Poetry Press
Published: Jan 23 2026
Pages: 48
Weight: 0.15
Height: 0.12 Width: 5.83 Depth: 8.27
Language: English
Margaret Royall is a poet and short story author with seven published books to her name: a micro chapbook Singing The Earth Awake (Hedgehog Press 2019), two poetry pamphlets, Earth Magicke and Immersed in Blue, both from Impspired, 2021, two poetry collections, Fording The Stream (2017, independently published), Where Flora Sings (2020, Hedgehog Press) and a memoir in prose and verse, The Road To Cleethorpes Pier (2020, Crumps Barn Studio).
In Hemlock and Honey we are introduced to traumas 'burying themselves....worm-like in salted skin' and Margaret Royall questions whether this is a 'Gift or curse?' Powerful sonnets and other forms give moving and honest accounts: the traumatic deaths of both parents and others close and the harrowing challenges that follow. We are taken through dark childhood memories, illnesses and a longing for peace, at home and in the world. In the section: 'Honey', the joy starts to return. We are eyes open in the natural world, where 'trees spread guardian wings.' This is a stunning collection you will find yourselves in.
Julie Stevens
With her new collection Hemlock & Honey, Margaret Royall is in fine form. The poems in the first part of this lovely book speak of loss, grief and the traumas and challenges of real life, while the second part speaks lyrically of nature's healing qualities and the power of connection. Strong imagery and sensual details bring us inside each experience, each moment. We see, feel, understand and empathise - not just words but emotions. The poet retains a beautiful lightness of touch with many sonnet forms which delight. Through the darkest moments there is light, hope, and a determination to move forward somehow. The second half is a quest to seek 'newer shrines... / kintsugi for lost shards'. Of course, what is lost might never truly be found again. But what remains can be enjoyed once more, a balm for the soul provided by nature, music, love and memory. Add to this the healing honey of language itself and you have a magical collection to be treasured.
Lucy Heuschen
Margaret Royall's poetry probes the deep recesses of our souls in the poisonous hemlock of human experience as well as the sweet honey of redemption. Here is a modern Labours of Hercules in the challenges that punctuate our lives, calling us to witness, accept and adapt. Beyond those labours we taste the sweetness of the world and find our own 'heart-home', sculpting a restorative beauty and grace in the spirit of connection and renewal. This collection reflects tenderly on the multiple triggers that shock, repulse and etch us: point-sharp moments of chronic illness, loss and grief, and the disconsolations of this world. And though cut, disfigured or defined we can be freed to immerse ourselves in the warm embrace of sense-laden encounters, wrapped in the embrace of life's wellspring and our new wings of wonder. This is an appealing and resonant collection with a vulnerable and sensitive heart that is fully deserving of a wide readership.
Glenn Barker
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