Later Life Letter

Electronic book text

'The best young performance poet around' OBSERVER

'Wright succeeds in finding new and beautiful ways of expressing the everyday' GUARDIAN

'Luke is a craftsman with a big heart' IAN MCMILLAN

What is a later life letter? Written by a child's social worker to be opened at an appropriate age, it details their journey from birth to adoption. When Luke was given one as a teenager, he didn't make much of it. But now, married to a social worker and seeing the care she takes composing these letters, he re-examines his own past - and the life he might have had.

Should he feel close to the biological brothers he has only seen through Facebook stalking? Do his beginnings in a notorious tower-block estate counteract the privilege of his sheltered suburban upbringing? How grateful should he be to his adopted parents, who are - in the end - just parents?

In this memoir in poetry, no emotion is simple or expected. Luke writes with a pinpoint honesty that teases out the nuances of family, memory and belonging - and in the process, he uncovers the gaps between the usual beats of an adoption story.

'Performance poetry's key revivalist' METRO

'Wright's craft is at this point extraordinarily fine-tuned' HARRY JOSEPHINE GILES

'Wright's a balladeer for our time' JOHN FIELD, POOR RUDE LINES