Ilse Pedler is a prize-winning poet who writes from the unique perspective of a practicing veterinary surgeon. Her title: Auscultation: means listening and specifically, in medicine, listening to sounds that come from the body’s internal organs. If listening is a central theme of this collection; it is also about being heard. This is a voice that has longed to be understood and heard from the depths of a difficult childhood and the emotions later raised by a court case for contact with her stepson. Pedler’s style is realist, often fiercely so, with the conviction of one who speaks from experience. There are a number of fascinating poems about surgical instruments; scissors and clips, scalpels, gloves, whiffs of chemicals and disinfectants. As well as the operating theatre there are distant hill farms, pig pens, shearing sheds, stables, milking parlours, and freezing fields on winter nights. Formally the poems are also skilful and diverse.Ilse Pedler’s poems in Auscultation, with their cool realism, challenging subject matter, diverse use of classical and free forms and entertaining incidents, are sure to please intelligent, discerning readers.