The Leaving features poems mostly written in the past decade, covering the author’s move from the city to the country, new challenges, relationships, landscapes and loves. Poems written with humour and in sorrow, with joy and passion, with incredulity and awe. Sometimes clear-eyed and disturbingly real, sometimes utterly fantastic, containing portraits of painters and politicians, of children paddling canoes, of a doomed lyricist writing songs on the road, of a lover pleading with his girlfriend to stay, and finally of life in the shadow of Covid. Just one person’s life in the 21^st century.

‘It is a great pleasure to read poetry that is so open, emotional and unafraid of vulnerability. There are so many moving poems, and so much delightful phrase making that the book is a strong and rewarding read. These poems are also rich in observation, they demonstrate how feeling can be seamlessly recast into rhythm and musicality. Purcell captures the private instances of the sensual world with great aplomb. These poems have a sharpness of mind, a penetrating focus of image and diction, and a resonance that lingers.’

Judith Beveridge, recipient of the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards for Poetry for Sun Music, 2019.