 Alan Brownjohn wrote that his "religious poems ... seem designed for an age of doubt and DNA".Although rooted in the English lyric tradition, his work draws on the language of science (especially genetics and genomics), theology and philosophy.His fourth book of poetry, "Corpus", was the winner of the 2004 Whitbread Poetry Award, and was shortlisted for the T S Eliot Prize, the Forward Prize for best collection, and the Griffin Poetry Prize.