The Man with Night Sweats by Thom Gunn displays Gunn's unparalleled ability to move between classical forms and looser, more colloquial measures - while always remaining a deeply moving and affecting poet.

Thom Gunn's The Man with Night Sweats shows him writing at the height of his powers, equally in command of classical forms and of looser, more colloquial measures, and ready to address a wide range of themes, both intimate and social. The book ends with a set of poems about the deaths of friends from AIDS. With their unflinching directness, compassion and grace, they are among the most moving statements yet to have been provoked by the disease.