Like Brown's book of short stories Calling The Fish and his novel Marked Men, Skin Hunger explores a seedy but loveable Auckland of crumbling Bohemian villas, underfurnished apartments and twenty-four hour bars. The poems set amidst Auckland's gay community have considerable sociological and historical value, despite the fact that they eschew generalisation and political rhetoric.

Here is a poet who 'exposes himself to love', sex and 'life as legend' with courage, exuberance and hunger. Gripping, nostalgic and 'hot', these poems, 'gleaming with treasure' and populated with lively literary ghosts, are a compulsive read. - Riemke Ensing