In ‘Rotten Days in Late Summer’, Ralf Webb turns sensuous, musical poetry to a profound and illuminating examination of the textures of class, youth, adulthood, and death in the working communities of the West Country, from mobile home parks, boyish factory workers and saleswomen kept on the road for days at a time, to the yearnings of young love shared with men and women alike. He explores, too, the metropolis, in its bewilderments, hypocrisies, pretensions, and haunting promise.