" Despite what the first pages may suggest, this is most definitely not a children' s tale." Or so we' re told. It' s more like what Byron thought about " true poetry" : that " ' tis the part/ Of a true poet to escape from fiction" . David Miller escapes from fiction in " spirit dreams" he learned from a certain Koala named Norman, who seems to have passed them along through a certain wombat named Archie. If I told you any more about David' s escapes you' d think I was making it up, or maybe that I just dreamed it all. But as David once said I think he was at Felpham " you can never tell about these things." Jerome McGann