Lucinda Gane, Christopher Reid's wife, died in October 2005. A Scattering is his tribute to her and consists of four poetic sequences, the first written during her illness, and the other three at intervals after her death. Shortlisted for the Forward Prize 2009, A Scattering is described by Adam Newey in The Guardian as 'A beautiful book... [that] performs the miracle of bringing the dead back to life.'