The poems in Beyond the Dashboard explore what happens when work and love transgress boundaries. Hughes' poems were written in the nineties, when he was an accomplished press photographer travelling between assignments, bearing witness to both colourful local characters and society's darker undercurrents.
It is a taut and intelligent piece of writing that conveys a vivid sense of isolation, entrapment, and mystery as multiple identities and personae figure out where meaning and purpose can be found in an old Victorian town.
Set against this backdrop, Hughes's collection embodies the poetics of the plughole as well as themes of romance, cynicism, and alienation.