In 'Hymns Ancient & Modern', J. Brookes writes about situations, places and people that are often deemed ordinary and unimportant. He does this in a way that both reinforces their ordinariness and celebrates it at the same time. There are many unexpectedly profound moments to be found amongst his service stations, corner laundrettes, nursing homes, missed trains and humming boilers. These may be poems set in the everyday, but what Brookes says in them is far from run-of-the-mill.