The surprises that lie in wait for those who adventure into the unknown have always delighted Edwin Morgan. By now generations of readers have accompanied him on unusual voyages through time and space, in this world and beyond. At 90 years of age he continued to explore existence, through translations, memories, dreams and other nightmares. These new and uncollected poems draw upon the whole range of his writing life from 1954 to 2009. They invite us to go with the poet yet once more to observe the unknown through the lens of his remarkable imagination.

The story of how some of the later poems in this remarkable collection came to be can be read in James McGonigal's Beyond the Last Dragon: A Life of Edwin Morgan (Sandstone Press, 2010), which in turn inspired Liz Lochhead, Edwin Morgan's successor as Scotland's Makar, or national poet, to write Dreams and other nightmares, a play commissioned by the Glasgay! festival. This play premiered to critical acclaim during the 2011 Glasgay! festival.