A Guardian Book of the Month. A Poetry School Book of the Year. Featured online in Granta.

Hello is the debut collection of poems by Crispin Best, whose unmistakable voice may be the closest we have to a contemporary poetic vernacular.

The baby chameleon that turns up at the end of Hello could be the book's totem animal: a creature whose flamboyance is also its camouflage. For, despite their many heart-rending moments, these poems have fun with masks and voices; they are awash with ventriloquised 90s pop-culture and contemporary media tropes that blur the line between candour and karaoke.