"Utterly mesmerising. An intensely rewarding and spine-tingling experience. What pain underlies it is mitigated by so much love, rescue, hope and triumph. Only a real poet can take one from a walk with Cavafy amongst the stones of the Acropolis to the misery of Heston motorway services; from Colombian emerald mines to communing with T.S. Eliot’s ashes in East Coker… Cranitch takes the resources of landscape, science, philosophy, mythology and of course poetry and uses them not just to meditate on the cruel, sordid, terrifying and humiliating truths of addiction, but to do something more than meditate – to understand, to resolve and to transform. This is what poetry at its best and truest can do. A wonderful achievement."

Stephen Fry

"Crystal is certainly the most gripping collection of poetry I have ever read. Love, thought and writing transcending all, in one slim volume. Individual poems will break your heart and your admiration for the determination to turn all this into art will never diminish."

Nick Hornby

On his Substack, A Fan's Notes

"Beautifully rendered, well-seen, rich in clinching details."

Declan Ryan

The Irish Times

"Transcendent, an act of genius...transforms suffering into something beautiful and of value...Repeatedly, the speaker {demonstrates} the ability to see nuance, to grieve without reducing, dehumanising or condemning..."

Grace Wilentz

Poetry Ireland Review