The Toll

An escaped lion roams the streets of Essex;

a lonely pensioner holds a tower block fete; ,brand a young woman dreams of leaving home.

Travel the unfashionable A-roads and commuter lines of England -'where industry meets marsh'- with poet Luke Wright. In his stunning new collection, discover a country riven by inequality and corruption but sustained by a surreal, gallow's humour. The Toll combines the elegaic with the anarchic, placing uproarious satire cheek-by-jowl with wild experiments in form and touching poems of parenthood.

In this mature follow-up to his best-selling debut, Mondeo Man, Wright captures the strain of austerity Britain, speaking truth to power and registering the toll it takes on us all.

"Performance poetry's key revivalist." Metro
Luke Wright writes bawdy bar room ballads about small town tragedies and Westminster rogues. His fast paced, witty poems are crammed full of yummy mummies, debauched Tory grandees, maudlin commuters and leering tabloid paps. His live shows are enjoyed by thousands of people across the world every year, where he mixes the wistful with the downright comic to take audiences on an incredible emotional journey.
Since 2006 he has written and performed eight one man shows, touring them to top literary and arts festivals from Australia to Scotland via Hong Kong and Bruges. In 2015 his debut play (in which he also starred) What I Learned From Johnny Bevan won a prestigious Fringe First Award at The Edinburgh Fringe, also bagged Luke The Stage Award for Acting Excellence.
In 2017, his second full poetry collection - The Toll - was published by Penned in the Margins and toured the UK. Luke Wright's second verse play, Frankie Vah, debuted at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2017, with publication and a national tour to follow in 2018.