Headlines to the Heart

Headlines to the Heart is the poet's own selection of the most memorable poems from half a century of deeply-felt living. Humorous, erotic, perceptive and full of spoken ideas which stick in the mind, Tipping's poetry has been widely published and anthologised.

Years of life and observation are distilled here, in the typical Tipping style, with dazzling wit, playfulness, precision and clarity. This is a complex, comprehensive response to the experience of living in our times, a 'his-story' which rewards careful, serious reading. — Jean Kent, reviewing Instant History in Rochford Street Review, 2022

Nearer by Far is Tipping's best collection with some trenchant political and satirical poems allied to fine landscape verse. As always with Tipping, the result is witty, inventive and lively writing. — The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature, second edition, edited by Wilde, Hooton and Andrews, OUP 1996

Looking back at Tipping's work across twenty years or so, we can see very clearly a tight group of virtual 'classics' which are likely to recur in anthologies for many years. These display his distinctively subtle wit and often his visual acuity at full strength. — A Reader's Guide to Contemporary Australian Poetry, Geoff Page, University of Queensland Press, 1995