Tattoo is narrative, signifier, art work, more. In this rich collection Kate Noakes explores the cultural meanings and stories permanently etched on our skin.

In Goldhawk Road, her eighth collection, Kate Noakes raises questions of identity - the who and where we are, the where and who we want to be. She returns to London after six years spent shuttling back and forth to Paris for work. An observant and curious flaneuse, Kate explores her new city and the wider country with fresh eyes on the geography, the natural and the human history, while other poems here take us on travels further afield to the varied landscapes of the USA, Japan's temples and gardens, the Australia of her childhood and imagination and, of course, to France in both its sadness and beauty.

Paris, Stage Left covers Kate Noakes' first five years in the City of Lights, in all its history, tragedy and comedy. Noakes arrived in Paris in 2011 to pursue a job opportunity, and her early days in the city are chronicled here in these lively and nuanced poems.

In her most autobiographical collection to date, Kate Noakes explores the pain of losing a long-built life and the joys of exploring a new one. This is a howl that ends with a hallelujah.