From a cheerful widow in Chicago to a Killing Fields tour guide in Cambodia, from a teacher in Cuba to a Minister of Information in India, people are invariably more interesting and multi-faceted than they at first appear – if you are prepared to give them time and listen to their stories.

Years of listening and travelling have been condensed into Nigel Planer’s new poetry collection, which – as well as having an enormous cast list of people from all around the world – has poems which are personal, emotional, raw, and sometimes plain silly.