Rapport is a book of poems with immediate emotional impact. Exploring the dynamics of interpersonal relationships, the poems focus on many of life’s universal concerns: love, memory, identity, ageing, regret, loss, dying and death. Some of the poems are quietly contemplative, and others are charged with emotion, but collectively they offer wisdom and insight that will challenge the reader. ‘As its title suggests, the poems collected in Rapport offer sympathetic insights into other lives while also meditating on ‘all the longings/of a frail and shared humanity’, to quote from ‘Analysis’. While there is some emphasis on the later stages of life, with their accompaniments of ageing, illness and death, Brady’s work affirms the enduring power of empathy, love and friendship.’ – Professor Elizabeth Webby AM FAHA