Woundsbegins with two lovers in bed. Their lovemaking throughout the book forms a recurring lietmotif, a counterpoint to the examination of the spiritual death of the characters.

In a South London environment of pub and fairground, home and work, the wounds of 20th century experience are evoked in prose which is both lyrical and precise. Kingy in her garden, loved by the most handsome women in the world; Maura the barmaid: I prefer the little, thin men'; Glisten the Mayor: Itll be take-over time and too late these and the many other characters illustrate the basic theme of the novel.

Maureen Duffy is a British poet, playwright and novelist. After a tough childhood, Duffy took her degree in English from Kings College London. She was a schoolteacher from 1956 to 1961, and then turned to writing full-time as a poet and playwright.

Her London trilogy comprises, firstly, Wounds, set in South London during the early period of Afro-Caribbean immigration; secondly, Capital tells the history of London from Neolithic times through tales of Saxon kings, anonymous invaders, the flea that spread the Black Death and the transsexual King Elizabeth; and finally Londoners follows Dante's Inferno, canto by canto, through modern gay London.

Duffy is the author of 33 published works, including seven collections of poetry, non-fiction and 16 plays for stage, screen and radio; she is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and of Kings College London, a Vice President of the Royal Society of Literature, and holds honorary DLitts from the universities of Loughborough and Kent. A new collection, Environmental Studies, was published by Enitharmon in April 2013 and was longlisted for the Green Carnation Prize 2013.