Nine Arches Press

Grey Time

Julia Webb

ISBN: 978-1-916760-20-2

eISBN: 978-1-916760-21-9

Price: £11.99

Publication date: 3^rd July 2025

Format: Paperback / eBook

Territories: World

Extent: 72pp

DCF: Poetry Collections

Cover artwork: Natty Peterkin

To live is to lose, to grieve is to be human. Part elegy, part lament, part love song; Julia Webb’s fourth collection Grey Time is a powerful examination of what it is to love and lose, of our relationship with both grief and the dead. Exploring the many facets and nuances of loss, Webb explores what happens before and after the sudden death of a loved one and how our relationship with them changes over time as new secrets are revealed and old hurts heal.

This book is not defined by death, however, as these refreshing, evocative poems study and witness the myriad losses of a lifetime. Julia Webb turns her forensic eye on the complexity of unresolved relationships; on what is said or not said, how people behave under duress, how violence can creep into our lives, as well as exploring her own recently discovered neurodivergence. Grey Time is a revelatory collection that takes bold leaps, binding the strange and surreal to the everyday – to make possible a place where a one mother turns owl, and another mother will teach her son how to fly. 

Praise for Grey Time:

‘An outstanding collection with grief at its core - a great sweeping arc of grief, which stretches across a lifetime, taking in losses from multiple bereavements to the experience of mothering and being mothered. The experience of loss is explored with unusual fluidity, depth and dexterity: its hard truths and complexities are present throughout, but so are its moments of astounding beauty. In portraying the particularity of her grief with such insight and skill, Julia Webb has created a collection of universal relevance. A gift of a book.’ – Clare Shaw

'I hadn’t finished even a first reading of Julia Webb’s Grey Time when I realised these deft, moving poems would linger with me for years to come. The central sequence is haunting and unforgettable.' - Carrie Etter

'Death is encountered everywhere in this collection that maps the journey of the one left behind - the one who must go on living. These formally assured poems travel seamlessly between the mundane and the surreal, charting with painstaking precision the shocks, complications and processes of love and grief. Courageous, visceral and immersive.’ – Jacqueline Saphra