The ‘pure sheen’ of a horse chestnut makes way for the ‘minty scent’ of gumtrees in her adopted home where plants are often not what they seem: ‘You are my ocean — / blue cocktail of salt and sediment — / but you are not my leaf.’ While exploring ‘a closer understanding of what it means / to be a woman’ she displays a constant consciousness of the body and its desires. One part memory, two parts love letter to the sea, with dashes of longing, sass, and a nip of melancholia, The Blue Cocktail is strange, sexy and intoxicating. In a dazzling variety of forms here are poems alert to imagination and alive to language itself. If The Important Things was a book of promise The Blue Cocktail demonstrates that guarantee has been honoured.

‘Audrey Molloy’s curious sensuality makes even the difficult moments deeply pleasurable.’ Martina Evans, The Irish Times

The poem ‘A Legacy to Seven Men I’ve Loved’ has been shortlisted for the 2023 An Post Irish Book Awards Listowel Writers’ Week Poem of the Year.