The Sound Ladder features war stories and resurrections; Cornwall and Mexico; demonstrations and school dances; refugees and book fairs; the natural world and the surrealism of the internet; elegy, anger, and humour. And music: these poems listen to what the rhythm section is doing beneath the surface of specific places and events, the beat a few strata down.

David Attwooll was a winner of the 2013 Poetry Business competition with Surfacing. Ground Work (2014) is a poet's calendar exploring (with the artist Andrew Walton) the topography, history and changing weather and light in a floodplain bordering Oxford and the Thames. The Sound Ladder contains poems from these pamphlets as well as more recent work.

'The supercharged, over-communicative modern world in the form of spam and YouTube crackles and buzzes in several of these poems... Geographically, linguistically, thematically and stylistically this is a varied and rich collection of poems; Attwooll has a keen eye and a sharp tongue but ultimately ... a sympathetic mind' -- Simon Armitage (on Surfacing)

'... these poems capture Attwooll's delight in the world around him' -- Jenny Lewis

' Attwooll] balances seriousness and humour within originality of form in ways that are wholly new and are ... permanent additions to the repertoire of English poetry' -- Laurie Smith