Critics

• Philip Alan


  "the cruelty that seems to be a part of masculinity"
• Interview with WJEC and Sheers

  "The landscape you are brought up in provides the bedrock of your writing"
• Sarah Crown


  "The familiar landscape of Wales to which the poet clings"
• Carrie Etter


  "Skirrid Hill concerns loss and our vulnerability to it"
• Janeen Morris


  "(there is) the potential for destruction and violence"
• Luke McBratney


  "Sheer's is a master of the multivalent title"
• Helen Calcutt


  "his use of lyrical language in a dramatic context is both lurid and gentle - both human and quiet."
• Sarah Crown 2


  The book is punctuated by lyrics on women that almost invariably end with parting
• Lisa Gee


  "Sheers poems are imbued with a deep love for Wales, its people and livestock"

  "the hills, valleys and woods of his poems are invariably populated"

  "Animals interact with humans or are acted upon"
• Sarah Crown on Inheritance


  "a sense of almost marvel at the beauty of their long union"

  "dialectical structure... and joyful synthesis of the last verse"
• Luke McBratney on Show


  "an internal composite of idealised perfection"
• Olivia Cole


  Skirrid Hill is "anchored in limbo" and there is an "elegaic sense of belatedness"
• Olivia Cole on Night Windows


  "Instinct versus learning, queasy feeling versus certainity"
• Sheers on poetry


  "excavate the layered associations of environments"

  "geographical areas possessed of their own internal geographies"
• "his use of lyrical language in a dramatic context is both lurid and gentle - both human and quiet.“- Helen Calcutt
• In poems from Skirrid Hill...there's some use of feminine rhyme...his relationship with women...is frequently explored.“- Helen Calcutt
• The translation of pain into language gives remarkable energy to any piece of writing.“- Helen Calcutt