A haiku, an ode, a sonnet, a limerick, an elegy ... more poetry,please.
Poetry Books
Sylph Editions Loss Sings: The Cahier Series 32
Book Synopsis
£12.60
Faber & Faber Collected Poems
Book SynopsisThis collection presents all the poems Auden wished to preserve, in the texts that received his final approval. It included the full contents of his previous collected editions along with all the later volumes of his shorter poems. Together, these works display the astonishing range of Auden's voice and the breadth of his concerns, his deep knowledge of the traditions he inherited, and his ability to recast those traditions in modern times.
£22.50
Faber & Faber The Illustrated Old Possum
Book SynopsisCats! Some are sane, and some are mad.Some are good, and some are bad . . .The original Old Possum''s illustrations have been lovingly restored and are showcased in this beautiful new hardback edition, perfect for children and Eliot aficionados alike. These lovable cat poems were written by T. S. Eliot for his godchildren and continue to delight children and grown-ups. The collection inspired the musical Cats!, and features Macavity, Mr Mistofelees and Growltiger!
£14.24
Faber & Faber The Poetry of Derek Walcott 19482013
Book SynopsisThe Poetry of Derek Walcott 19482013 draws from every stage of the poet''s storied career. Here are examples of his very earliest work, like ''In My Eighteenth Year'', published when the poet himself was still a teenager; his first widely celebrated verse, like ''A Far Cry from Africa'', which speaks of violence, of loyalties divided in one''s very blood; his mature work, like ''The Schooner Flight'' from The Star-Apple Kingdom; and his late masterpieces, like the tender ''Sixty Years After'', from the 2010 collection White Egrets. Across sixty-five years, Walcott has grappled with the themes that have defined his work as they have defined his life: the unsolvable riddle of identity; the painful legacy of colonialism on his native Caribbean island of St Lucia; the mysteries of faith and love; the trauma of growing old, of losing friends, family, one''s own memory. This collection, selected by Walcott''s friend the poet Glyn Maxwell, will prove as enduri
£18.00
Faber & Faber Homers Odyssey
Book SynopsisOriginally commissioned for BBC Radio, Simon Armitage recasts Homer''s epic as a series of dramatic dialogues. His version bristles with the economy, wit and guile that we have come to expect from one of the most individual voices of his generation.
£11.69
Faber & Faber Winning Words Inspiring Poems for Everyday Life
Book SynopsisFaster, higher, stronger: winning words are those that inspire you on to Olympian goals. From falling in love to overcoming adversity, celebrating a new born or learning to live with dignity: here is a book to inspire and to thrill through life''s most magical moments. From William Shakespeare to Carol Ann Duffy, our most popular and best loved poets and poems are gathered in one essential collection, alongside many lesser known treasures that are waiting to be discovered. These are poems that help you to see the miraculous in the commonplace and turn the everyday into the exceptional - to discover, in Kipling''s words, that yours is the Earth and everything that''s in it.
£9.49
Little, Brown Book Group The Vagina Monologues Eve Ensler
Book Synopsis2018 marks the twentieth anniversary of V-Day, the radical grassroots movement to end violence against women and girls, inspired by Eve Ensler''s international sensation The Vagina Monologues. This special edition features six never-before-published monologues, a new foreword by National Book Award winner Jacqueline Woodson, a new introduction by the author, and a new afterword by One Billion Rising director Monique Wilson on the stage phenomenon''s global impact.A landmark work in women''s empowerment, as relevant as ever after a year marked by unprecedented social and political protest in the face of unapologetic racism and misogyny, The Vagina Monologues honours women''s sexuality in all its complexity, mystery and power. Witty and irreverent, compassionate and wise, this award-winning masterpiece gives voice to real women''s deepest fantasies, fears, anger and pleasure, and calls for a world where all women are safe, equal, free and alive in their bodies.Trade ReviewThis play changed the world. Seeing it changed my soul. Performing in it changed my life * Kerry Washington *'Probably the most important piece of political theatre of the last decade' * New York Times *'Filled with generous energy and delight'The Times * The Times *Spellbinding, funny, and almost unbearably moving ... a work of art and an incisive piece of cultural history, a poem and a polemic, a performance and a balm and a benediction * Variety *
£10.44
Faber & Faber Tom Stoppard Plays 1
Book SynopsisThe plays in this collection reveal in combination the ''frivolous'' and ''serious'' aspects of Tom Stoppard''s talent: his sense of fun, his sense of theatre, his sense of the absurd, and his gifts for parody and satire. The author rounds off his brief introduction, giving the genesis of each piece, with the comment: ''The role of the theatre is much debated (by almost nobody, of course), but the thing defines itself in practice first and foremost as a recreation. This seems satisfactory''.Leading off is The Real Inspector Hound, the ultimate country-house whodunnit; Dirty Linen moves a Whitehall farce to Parliament Square; Dogg''s Hamlet, Cahoot''s Macbeth subverts Shakespeare; and After Magritte explains the inexplicable.
£17.09
Samuel French Ltd Art of Coarse Acting or How to Wreck an Amateur
Book SynopsisA coarse actor is...• One who can remember their lines but not the order in which they come• One whose eyebrows are attached to their feet (so every facial expression involves the whole body as well)• One who limps on both legs simultaneously• One who knows everybody else’s lines better than their ownFor 50 years, Michael Green’s The Art of Coarse Acting has been essential reading for anyone with a passion for theatre. It’s an outrageous spoof that punctures pretentiousness, pokes fun at incompetence, revels in disaster and lifts the lid on life backstage.As this special 50th anniversary edition proves, however much the theatre may change, Coarse Actors don’t. Green’s acerbic yet affectionate work remains one of the funniest books about acting ever written.
£11.99
Faber & Faber North
Book SynopsisIn North Seamus Heaney found a myth which allowed him to articulate a vision of Ireland - its people, history and landscape. Here the Irish experience is refracted through images drawn from different parts of the Northern European experience, and the idea of the north allows the poet to contemplate the violence on his home ground in relation to memories of the Scandinavian and English invasions which have marked Irish history so indelibly.
£11.69
Faber & Faber New Selected Poems 19661987
Book SynopsisThis volume contains a selection of work from each of Seamus Heaney's published books of poetry up to and including the Whitbread prize-winning collection, The Haw Lantern (1987).'His is 'close-up' poetry - close up to thought, to the world, to the emotions.
£13.49
Faber & Faber Ariel Faber Paperbacks
Book SynopsisThe poems in Sylvia Plath''s Ariel, including many of her best-known such as ''Lady Lazarus'', ''Daddy'', ''Edge'' and ''Paralytic'', were all written between the publication in 1960 of Plath''s first book, The Colossus, and her death in 1963.''If the poems are despairing, vengeful and destructive, they are at the same time tender, open to things, and also unusually clever, sardonic, hardminded . . . They are works of great artistic purity and, despite all the nihilism, great generosity . . . the book is a major literary event.'' A. Alvarez in the Observer
£11.69
Many Rivers Press Everything Is Waiting for You
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£16.20
Many Rivers Press Pilgrim (Revised) (Revised)
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£16.15
Little, Brown Book Group Blue Horses
Book SynopsisMaybe our world will grow kinder eventually.Maybe the desire to make something beautifulis the piece of God that is inside each of us.In this stunning collection, Mary Oliver returns to the imagery that has defined her life''s work. Herons, sparrows, owls and kingfishers flit across the page in meditations on love, artistry and impermanence. Whether considering a bird''s nest, the seeming patience of oak trees or the paintings of Franz Marc, Mary Oliver reminds us of the transformative power of attention and how much can be contained within the smallest moments.Blue Horses asks what it truly means to belong to this world and to live in it attuned to all its changes. ''To be human,'' she shows us, ''is to sing your own song''.Trade ReviewMary Oliver's poetry is fine and deep it reads like a blessing. Her special gift is to connect us with our sources in the natural world, its beauties and terrors and mysteries and consolations. - Stanley KunitzThe gift of Oliver's poetry is that she communicates the beauty she finds in the world and makes it unforgettable. - Miami HeraldOliver's poems are thoroughly convincing - as genuine, moving and implausible as the first caressing breeze of spring. - New York Times Book ReviewMary Oliver teaches us the profound act of paying attention - a living wonder that makes it possible to appreciate all the others. - Boston Globe
£10.44
Random House USA Inc Torch Song Trilogy
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£13.49
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Frances YaChu Cowhigs China Trilogy Three
Book SynopsisFrances Ya-Chu Cowhig (author)is an internationally produced playwright whose work has been staged in the United Kingdom at the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre, Hampstead Theatre, Trafalgar Studios 2 [West End] and the Unicorn Theatre. In the United States her work has been staged at venues that include the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Manhattan Theater Club and the Goodman Theatre. Frances' plays have been awarded the Wasserstein Prize, the Yale Drama Series Award (selected by David Hare), an Edinburgh Fringe First Award, the David A. Callichio Award and the Keene Prize for Literature. Her plays include Lidless, The World of Extreme Happiness, Snow in Midsummer, and The King of Hell's Palace.Joshua Chambers-Letson (editor) is Professor of Performance Studies at Northwestern University. He is the author of After the Party: A Manifesto for Queer of Color Life (NYU Press, 2018) and A Race So Different: Law and PeTrade ReviewSome playwrights have a gift to amuse; Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig has a darker gift. Anyone with romantic notions of Chinese culture will be unsettled by the jagged, unsentimental portrait of modern urban China. * Chicago Reader *“Fearless, zippily-paced, and satirical, shining a light on Chinese society's necessary doublethink, be that willful blindness to the political past, or an equally blind belief in an impossibly brilliant future. * Independent (on The King of Hell's Palace) *An expansive, ambitious play about trauma and passion * The Stage (on Snow in Midsummer) *Cowhig speaks bitterness and makes us sit up and listen * Lyn Gardner The Guardian (on The World of Extreme Happiness) *Table of Contents1. Editorial Preface (Chambers-Letson) – A brief preface introducing the volume and its structure. 2. General Introduction (Mok) – An introduction to Cowhig’s work and the process behind the China Plays 3. The World of Extreme Happiness (Cowhig) 4. World Afterword (Chambers-Letson) 5. Snow in Midsummer (Cowhig) 6. Snow Afterword (Chambers-Letson) 7. The King of Hell’s Palace (Cowhig) 8. King Afterword (Chambers-Letson) 9. Transcribed Conversation w/ Cowhig, Chambers-Letson, and Mok
£23.74
HarperCollins Publishers Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Collins Classics
Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics.A green horse great and tall;A steed full stiff to guide,In broidered bridle allHe worthily bestridesDating from around 1400 and composed by an anonymous writer, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was first translated and published almost 200 years ago. Its epic nature has not been dimmed by time: the classic story of a knight on a green steed challenging Sir Gawain to a monumental wager, it is a strange tale full of decapitations, seduction and magic.Soon to be brought to the big screen, Sir Gawain is one of the earliest great stories of English literature.
£5.05
Pan Macmillan A Poet for Every Day of the Year
Book SynopsisAllie Esiri’s beautiful gift anthology, A Poet for Every Day of the Year, is the perfect introduction to 366 of the world’s greatest ever verse writers.Perfect for reading aloud and sharing with all the family throughout the year, it is bursting at the seams with familiar favourites and exciting new discoveries. Shakespeare, William Wordsworth, Christina Rossetti and Emily Bronte sit alongside Roger McGough, Wendy Cope, Imtiaz Dharker, Leonard Cohen, Sylvia Plath and Ocean Vuong.Each of the 366 poems features a small introduction that gives a sense of who the writer was, and not just the greatness of their work. Some offer insightful biographical details or key historical context, while others may provide quirky, humorous anecdotes.The day-to-day format of the anthology invites readers to make poetry a part of their daily routine, and makes sure that they discover something inspirational, life affirming, provocative, moving or entertaining each and every day.Trade ReviewIf you feel as though your life is lacking a bit of poetry, this is an excellent place to start. * Best Poetry Books of the Year, The Times *[A Poet for Every Day of the Year] does exactly what it says on the tin, presenting a poet for you to meet and take your time with every day; to savour, enjoy, read, re-read and return to, knowing that there’ll be another one along tomorrow. -- Ian McMillan, award winning poet
£17.00
Faber & Faber When My Brother Was an Aztec
Book SynopsisFROM THE WINNER OF THE 2021 PULITZER PRIZE IN POETRYWhen My Brother Was an Aztec is a work of courage and invention - one that foregrounds the particularities of family dynamics and individual passion against the backdrop of Western mythologies and a deeply rooted cultural history. Natalie Diaz's arresting debut explores a brother's addiction and its devastating effects on a household, while offering a political critique of our nations and their pasts. It acknowledges absences and uncomfortable silences, as well as conjuring vivid voices and presences, from Antigone and Houdini to Huitzilopochtli and Jesus.Stolen cowboy boots, violins on fire; a mariachi band playing in the bathroom, a black bayonet carried between the shoulder blades; the beauty of busted fruit, the sight of hellish visions - Diaz both revels and reveals through her distinctive use of language and imagery, bringing to life every intimate and communal encounter, blooming abundance from scarcitTrade Review'She is a poet who understands tradition but is not beholden to it. She is a poet who will help us write into the future as she excavates the past and interrogates the present.' - Adrian Matejka, Poetry Society of America'Her work is a kind of confession, but also an assertion.' - Spectator
£10.44
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Chewing Gum Dreams
Book SynopsisTracey Gordon, the 67 bus, friendship, sex, UK garage, school, music, teachers, friendship, periods, emergency contraceptive, arse and tits, friendship, raves, tampons, white boys, God, money. Friendship. Aaron, Candice, sex and Connor Jones. Chewing Gum Dreams is a one-woman play that recalls those last days of innocence before adulthood.Written and performed by Michaela Coel who spent her childhood in Hackney, London, Chewing Gum Dreams won the 2012 Alfred Fagon Award.Trade ReviewCoel is by turns casually cruel, hilariously funny, naive, wise and vulnerable. Her play tackles some difficult themes, including sexual assault, violence, and underachievement across generations - a serious new talent. * Londonist *An engrossing, engaging and compelling one-woman show... nothing short of virtuosic. * What's On Stage *A promising, resilient artist. * Che Walker *
£12.34
City Lights Books Howl and Other Poems
Book Synopsis The prophetic poem that launched a generation when it was first published in 1965 is here presented in a commemorative hardcover edition! The landmark, original publication of Allen Ginsberg’s HOWL & Other Poems! HOWL & Other Poems, the prophetic book that launched the Beat Generation, was published by Lawrence Ferlinghetti at City Lights Books in 1956. Considered the single most influential work of post-WWII United States poetry, the City Lights edition of HOWL has remained in print for more than 60 years, with well over 1,000,000 copies in print. A strident critique of middle-class complacency, consumerism, and capitalist militarism, HOWL also celebrates the pleasures and freedoms of the physical world, including a tribute to homosexual love. In addition to “Howl,” poems in the book include: “A Supermarket in California,” “Sunflower Sutra,” “America,” “In the Baggage Room at Greyhound,” “Transcription of Organ Music,” and “Wild Orphan,” among others. A History of HOWL: City Lights founder Lawrence Ferlinghetti first heard Allen Ginsberg read “Howl” at the Six Gallery event in San Francisco, 1955, which featured writers Philip Lamantia, Gary Snyder, Philip Whalen, and Michael McClure, introduced by poet Kenneth Rexroth. Jack Kerouac was present, but did not read, encouraging and cheering the other poets on. Ferlinghetti was so impressed by Ginsberg’s performance, he immediately telegrammed him, referencing Ralph Waldo Emerson’s response to Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, “I greet you at the beginning of a great career. When do I get the manuscript?” When the first edition of HOWL arrived from its British printers, it was seized almost immediately by U.S. Customs, and shortly thereafter the San Francisco police arrested its publisher and editor, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, together with the City Lights Bookstore manager, Shigeyoshi Murao. The two were charged with disseminating obscene literature, and the case was sent to trial. Ferlinghetti partnered with the ACLU to launch a defense of HOWL, and a parade of distinguished literary and academic witnesses appeared in court to persuade the judge of its merits. In the end, famously conservative Judge Clayton Horn ruled that the poem was not obscene, but rather, as he stated emphatically, HOWL was a work of “redeeming social significance.” The landmark decision signaled a sea change in American culture, and the City Lights edition of HOWL became a vital cornerstone in the ongoing struggle for free expression and representation. It continues to attract generation after generation of readers. “It is the poet, Allen Ginsberg, who has gone, in his own body, through the horrifying experiences described from life in these pages.”—William Carlos Williams “Ginsberg is both tragic and dynamic, a lyrical genius . . . probably the single greatest influence on American poetical voice since Whitman.”—Bob Dylan “Not only did he give us love and poetry, he reminded us of our civic duty to use our voice.”—Patti Smith “Howl was Allen''s metamorphosis from quiet, brilliant, burning bohemian scholar trapped by his flames and repressions to epic vocal bard.”—Michael McClure
£11.39
Focus Publishing/R Pullins & Co Clouds
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£11.39
Andrews McMeel Publishing She Fits Inside These Words
Book SynopsisFrom New York Times bestselling authors r.h. Sin and Robert M. Drake with bestselling poet Samantha King Holmes comes an ode for all women.This is the time to look into the mirror and see everything you’ve been fighting for. Yourself, a peace of mind, and everything your heart deserves. You fit inside these words.
£11.39
Graphic Arts Books Lysistrata
Book SynopsisLysistrata and Other Plays centers a disgruntled woman whose attempt to end a war takes the battle from an open field to the soldier’s bedroom. Wives from both camps deny their husbands basic affection in an effort to quell the violence. Set during the Peloponnesian War, the women of Greece, led by Lysistrata, create a plan to stifle the conflict between Athens and Sparta. Together, they agree to stage a sex strike, refusing to sleep with their husbands until a resolution is met. The strategy has an undeniable effect on politicians, generals and soldiers eager for a return to normalcy. It dramatically changes the focus of the warring parties, signifying the potential for peace. Lysistrata and Other Plays confronts gender norms and empowers those who are often marginalized. It’s a common theme in Aristophanes’ work that is also found in The Assemblywomen and Thesmophoriazusae. This political satire illustrates how fundamental needs always take precedence over superficial wants. With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Lysistrata and Other Plays is both modern and readable.
£5.72
Currency Press Pty Ltd Girl Asleep
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£14.44
Pan Macmillan Goblin Market & Other Poems
Book SynopsisWith a preface by Elizabeth Macneal and original illustrations by Laurence Housman.Two sisters, Laura and Lizzie, are enticed by the smells, sounds and sights of the goblin market, tempted by the ripe figs, plump cherries and fragrant berries. Whilst Lizzie resists, Laura is slowly destroyed by her insatiable longing for the goblin’s forbidden fruit.Complete & Unabridged. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. Here is Christina Rossetti’s first critically acclaimed collection of poetry. Published in 1862, as well as ‘Goblin Market’ it contains some of her most treasured work, such as ‘A Birthday’, ‘An Apple Gathering’ and ‘Remember’. It launched her career as the foremost female poet of her time and, more than a century later, modern readers are still seduced by its symbolism and sensual language.
£10.44
Pan Macmillan Funeral Readings and Poems
Book SynopsisTo find solace from grief, we have always turned to the written word. With poetry and prose spanning continents, religions and cultures, this moving anthology examines loss, celebrates lives well lived and offers words of consolation.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning clothbound pocket-sized classics with gilt edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is edited by Becky Brown.Helpfully divided into different sections, Funeral Readings and Poems features many famous poems such as ‘Funeral Blues’ by W. H. Auden and ‘How do I Love Thee?’ by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, alongside comforting prose from the likes of Louisa May Alcott and Kenneth Graham.
£10.44
Faber & Faber The Poems of T. S. Eliot Volume I
Book SynopsisTo accompany Eliot's poems, Christopher Ricks and Jim McCue have provided a commentary that illuminates the creative activity that came to constitute each poem, calling upon drafts, correspondence and other original materials to provide a vivid account of the poet's working processes, his reading, his influences and his revisions.
£22.50
Nick Hern Books Heavy Weather
Book SynopsisMona is a young woman on the edge. All she sees is the Earth falling apart, but no one really seems to care. Amidst the chaos of competing and contradictory voices, she sets off on a kaleidoscopic journey to find solutions for the planet – and the truth about her family – in the hope that everything might start to make sense again. Lizzie Nunnery's Heavy Weather is a powerful, timely play featuring songs, about one girl's journey through a world teetering on the brink. The play is part of Platform, an initiative from Tonic Theatre in partnership with Nick Hern Books. Aimed at achieving greater gender equality in theatre, Platform comprises big-cast plays with predominantly, or all, female casts, written specifically for performance by young actors.Trade Review'A great choice for GCSE and A level students… for study it offers some engaging monologues and duologues, and the ensemble is really exciting… a play which ticks a lot of boxes' * Drama & Theatre Magazine *'Wonderful… a lovely piece of theatre with great characters for young actors to get their teeth into, familiar issues and situations and lots of humour that still treats the issues very seriously… well worth a look for any teenage youth-theatre group' * British Theatre Guide *'A fascinating challenge, with an intriguing role for the ensemble and lots of scope for a compelling visual translation... a young, brilliant director could do wonders with this' * Broadway World *'Thrums with life and urgency' * BritishTheatre.com *
£9.49
Nick Hern Books Nine Night (NHB Modern Plays)
Book SynopsisFamily, food, music and mourning. Gloria is gravely sick. When her time comes, the celebration begins; the traditional Jamaican Nine Night Wake. But for Gloria's children and grandchildren, marking her death with a party that lasts over a week is a test. Nine nights of music, food, sharing stories - and an endless parade of mourners. Natasha Gordon's debut play Nine Night is a touching and very funny exploration of the rituals of family. It is premiered at the National Theatre in April 2018.Trade Review'A remarkable debut… Gordon has a finely tuned ear for the humour of everyday life… an eloquent vision of what it means to be haunted by the past' Evening Standard; 'Reverberates with authenticity… [has] a great warmth of characterisation' Daily Mail; 'Gordon's intense, moving play pulls the focus tightly on a mourning family, and the mingled strains and comforts that tradition offers... her humour isn't cautious: it's unafraid to poke at racism, colourism, and the insults traded as Jamaica and Britain stare each other down, across centuries of brutal and oppressive history… the play says so much about how we rely on family for validation, for confirmation of our identity, putting a weight of need onto them that they sometimes just can’t fulfil. And it points to the cathartic power of ritual, too, in a culture whose burial rites are miles away from traditional England’s sad, grey funeral teas' Time Out; 'Sharp and snappy… an undeniably important piece that both celebrates and gives a voice to the Windrush generation and its descendants living in Britain today' Broadway World; 'The beauty of Nine Night is in the ordinariness of it. The mainstream delivery of black stories is often – too often – overtly political. Brutalised bodies and violent racism is disturbingly normalised in black British theatre. But what we have here is a pure tale about a regular family, dealing with a regular fact of life. This play is a gift, and you’d do well to go and receive it' The Stage
£9.89
Nick Hern Books Leave Taking
Book Synopsis‘What doctor know about our illness? Just give you pills to sick you stomach and a doctor certificate. What they know about a black woman soul?’ In North London, Del and Viv are soul-sick. Del doesn’t want to be at home; staying out late – 3 p.m.-the-next-day late – is more her thing. Viv scours her schoolbooks trying to find a trace of herself between their lines. When Enid takes her daughters to the local obeah woman for some traditional Caribbean soul-healing, secrets are spilled. There’s no turning back for Del, Viv and Enid as they negotiate the frictions between their countries and cultures. Two generations. Three incredible women. Winsome Pinnock's play Leave Taking is an epic story of what we leave behind in order to find home. It premiered in 1987, and was revived at the Bush Theatre, London, in 2018, in a production directed by the Bush’s Artistic Director, Madani Younis. Winsome Pinnock has written numerous plays, including Talking in Tongues, for which she won the George Devine and Pearson Best New Play Awards. ‘The godmother of Black British playwrights’ GuardianTrade Review'A devastatingly powerful story of a British-Caribbean family... why Winsome Pinnock's play isn't on the English Literature syllabus is a mystery to me, given its shocking contemporary relevance... this play warms and devastates' * Time Out *'A beautiful, humourous and often impossibly sad portrayal of the immigrant experience... Pinnock's dialogue is a subtle marvel, offering all the poetry and rhythm of the Jamaican accent, where phrases sing with layers of meaning. It is a brilliantly wrought piece of drama' * WhatsOnStage *'An epic story that spans generations and puts the narratives of four formidable women on the centre stage... Leave Taking is an undeniably important addition to our theatrical landscape' * Broadway World *'There are few plays in British theatre that speak so directly, resonantly and truthfully to the experience of the black woman. Winsome Pinnock's first full-length play does this with such profound eloquence – it is rousing to watch… Leave Taking is timely in its politics, yet timeless in its themes' * The Stage *'Three decades since its debut Winsome Pinnock's pioneering portrayal of the lives of black Britons feels shockingly contemporary... Pinnock was a pioneer and her piece still hits home through its often shocking honesty about the hazards facing black people in Britain' * Guardian *
£10.44
Faber & Faber The Song of Lunch
Book SynopsisLunch in Soho with a former lover - but Zanzotti''s is under new management, and as the wine takes effect fond memories give way to something closer to the bone . . .Christopher Reid''s poem, which since its first publication has been filmed by the BBC and presented on stage in numerous venues, follows the lunchtime reunion of two long-separated lovers. Every smallest detail is cherished, as step by step the narrative moves towards its tragicomic outcome.
£11.69
Andrews McMeel Publishing Falling Toward the Moon
Book SynopsisFrom the authors of The New York Times bestseller Empty Bottles Full of Stories comes a brand-new collection of compelling poetry and prose.The heart will ache, the soul will feel weary, and the mind will be weighed down by the things you wish to forget. There will be nights when all you have is yourself and the moon. There will be nights when silence will exist in abundance. And even though you may feel lonely at first. You must understand that the solitude is a gift; you must understand that even when alone, you are more than enough.
£11.69
Abrams How to Cure a Ghost
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewWhen I first encountered Fariha’s writing, I let out a sigh of relief. Was it refreshing? Yes. But there was something more. Her words allow us to feel visible. Fariha’s writing has the power to heal and transform. She pulls you into her stories until you’re at the edge of your seat, emphatically rooting for her subjects. -- Rupi Kaur“A moving poetry collection by a queer Muslim writer exploring all the facets of her identity.” * Domino *“[Roisin’s] writing is intensely vulnerable and through revealing her own experience she reflects so many others.” * Bustle *“…a collection of poems that aims to heal..." * Vogue online *“…heart-aching and emotional while offering a sense of hope in a world that desperately needs it.” * Little Infinite *“In these short and potent stanzas she makes it clear that while she’s been able to lay down the ghosts that have haunted her own self-worth, loving herself back to health after the mental and physical exhaustion of weathering constant aggressions is a long and continuous process.” * Teen Vogue *
£10.79
Debolsillo Biografía para encontrarme / An Autobiography of
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£12.39
Canongate Books A Night Out with Robert Burns: The Greatest Poems
Book SynopsisThe Scottish poet Robert Burns has been idolised and eulogised. He has been sainted, painted, tarted-up and toasted. He is famous as the author of 'Auld Lang Syne', and he has long been the patron saint of the heartsore and the hungover. But what about the poems? Beneath the cult of Burns Nights and patriotic yawps, there is the work itself, among the purest and most truthful created in any age.This is a Burns collection like no other, introduced, arranged and contextualised by the award-winning novelist and essayist Andrew O'Hagan. Above all, it is an accessible edition made for the pleasure of reading that brings Burns' timeless work to full, riotous, colourful life.Trade ReviewThere is probably no better modern introduction to Burns' work . . . A triumph * * Herald * *Presents Burns as a poet infinitely worth reading * * Daily Telegraph * *People who find it hard to get into Burns have the answer to their prayers in this book . . . presented in a way that Burns himself would have enjoyed - letting the poems chime and rhyme with the debates that surround us in the world today -- Ewan McGregorO'Hagan strips away the sentimentality which continues to cling to Burn's coat-tails and offers him to us at his very best - political, passionate, incisive and expressive - with biographical and textual notes that greatly enrich the reader's experience * * Guardian * *The way Burns sounded, his choice of words, his rhymes and metaphors,all that collapsed the distance I expected to feel between myself andthe schoolbook poetry I encountered first at Anahorish ElementarySchool . . . He did not fail the Muse or us or himself as one of poetry'schosen instruments -- Seamus HeaneyPicking out his favourite Burns poems, [O'Hagan] explains why each of them still matters, either personally or politically, with the lucidity one has come to expect from one of the leading Scottish essayists and novelists of his generation * * Scotsman * *
£9.49
Nightboat Books Time
Book SynopsisWINNER of the INTERNATIONAL GRIFFIN POETRY PRIZE WINNER of the BEST TRANSLATED BOOK AWARD FINALIST for the 2020 LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD On October 27, 2003, Adnan received a post card of a palm tree from the poet Khaled Najar, who she had met in the late seventies in Tunisia, sparking a collection of poems that would unspool over the next decade in a continuous discovery of the present moment. Originally written in French, these poems collapse time into single crystallized moments then explode outward to take in the scope of human history. In Time, we see an intertwining of war and love, coffee and bombs, empathetic observation and emphatic detail taken from both memory and the present of the poem to weave a tapestry of experience in non-linear time.Trade Review"A fragmentary, aphoristic examination of night in all its illuminating darkness from a Lebanese-American poet who is also an admired visual artist."—David Orr, The New York Times Book Review, "Best of 2016 Poetry" "Renowned Lebanese-American writer Adnan maps consciousness in a book-length poem that explores night in all its permutations. Though she is more elliptical and fragmentary here—and less narrative-driven or referential—than in previous work, these poems engage in a daring, meditative exploration of perception and her own experiences. Adnan does this with a courageous interiority that becomes universal as the text unfolds. Memory is a particularly notable leitmotif as it relates to identity, whether personal or collective. 'I measure my memory of things, but not memory itself, as the present is also overflowing,' she writes. These internal and societal memories lend themselves to queries about history, landscape, and the nature of consciousness. Adnan posits that memory is not a 'storage room. It’s not a tool for being able to think, it’s thinking, before thinking.' As the book progresses, memory becomes increasingly knotted with loss and mortality: 'It was said that people mattered, which we did, and they lost their shine.' Adnan never provides clear answers, but this prevents her wide-ranging assertions from becoming didactic; her evocative imagery and interwoven repetitions serve to create another memory—one that will linger with the reader long after the text’s conclusion."—Publishers Weekly "Adnan’s Time is a book that crosses continents, encounters wars and heartbreaks, and looks brazenly at one’s own mortality. And these poems do exactly what Adnan states, 'I would like to reflect like a / buoy, thrown out from the depths / to the luminous mortal surface / of the sea.'"—Jennifer Firestone, Tarpaulin Sky "There is a lot happening in these meditative postcards, from bombs dropping in Beruit to a return to Greece, sculptures or stripmining in California, composing a sequence of lyric sketches aware of and very concerned with how easily humanity turns against itself and its own interests, from the larger issues of planetary survival, to the intimate matters of how one person treats another… Yet her poems are filled with such a wonder and an openness, one that shows a wisdom, and, despite everything, an optimism and heart."—rob mclennan, rob mclennan's blog "Through this rejection of boundaries, Adnan delivers an incomparable magnitude of emotional wisdom on the uncertainties that press on through life, writing both clarity and complication into our experience of reality."—Zeena Yasmine Fuleihan, Ploughshares "Adnan poetically navigates the currents of desperation and hope with a clarity placed on the page in short stanzas that we can pick up and roll over in our minds again and again. Like the short lines written on the back of a postcard, the aphoristic quality of these verses allows them to take on different lives. They can be worked over with a different temporality as we return to them for multiple readings, as we explore how they interact with the preceding or following ones, and as we observe how they take on new shapes."—Emma Gomis, Asymptote Journal "Time is a place where language creates the meaningful space between souls, and the great threat to the truth. Time is a place where communication is sacred, where 'love is the subversion of / death', true living, and the body is a communicator of the self. 'Describe the body / if you can / and you will see how unlikely / your soul is.' The body then too is essential to language, to communication, to the 'inbetween' as 'it bursts with life and lasts / briefly.' And its greatest threat is time. Adnan urges we 'listen to the sound of [our] arteries.' She means everything has something to tell us. Everything is offering us an inbetween to come alive in, and we only have so long."—Erintrude Pieta, Kenyon Review
£11.39
Faber & Faber Paper Aeroplane Selected Poems 19892014
Book SynopsisWhen Simon Armitage burst on to the poetry scene in 1989 with his spectacular debut Zoom!, readers were introduced to an exceptional new talent who would reshape the landscape of contemporary poetry in the years to come. Now, Armitage''s reputation as one of the nation''s most original, most respected and most influential poets seems secure. Paper Aeroplane: Poems 19892014 is the author''s own choice of work from across a quarter-century of publishing. Drawing upon all of his award-winning poetry collections, including Kid, Book of Matches, The Universal Home Doctor, Seeing Stars and The Unaccompanied, as well as his medieval translations and verse dramas, Paper Aeroplane represents a generous and thrilling gathering of work from one of contemporary poetry''s most essential voices.
£13.49
Penguin Putnam Inc Rilke's Book of Hours: Love Poems to God
Book Synopsis
£14.45
Spark Hamlet No Fear Shakespeare Deluxe Student Edition
Book SynopsisWhy fear Shakespeare? By placing the words of the original play next to line-by-line translations in plain English, this popular guide makes Shakespeare accessible to everyone. And now it features expanded literature guide sections that help students study smarter.
£9.49
Skyhorse Publishing Haiku: The Last Poetry of Richard Wright
Book SynopsisRichard Wright, one of the early forceful and eloquent spokesmen for black Americans, author of the acclaimed "Native Son and Black Boy", discovered the haiku in the last eighteen months of life. He attempted to capture, through his sensibility as an African-American, the elusive Zen discipline and beauty in depicting man's relationship, not only to his fellow man as he had in the raw and forceful prose of his fiction, but to the natural world. In all, he wrote over 4,000 haiku. Here are the 817 he personally chose; Wright's haiku, disciplined and steeped in beauty, display a universality that transcends both race and color without ever denying them. Wright wrote his haiku obsessively - in bed, in cafes, in restaurants, in both Paris and the French countryside. They offered him a new form of expression and a new vision: with the threat of death constantly before him, he found in them inspiration, beauty, and insights. Fighting illness and frequently bedridden, deeply upset by the recent loss of his mother, Ella, Wright continued, as his daughter notes in her introduction, "to spin these poems of light out of the gathering darkness".
£13.99
Andrews McMeel Publishing Flowers on the Moon
Book SynopsisSocial media sensation Billy Chapata shares insight and advice into the powerful world of love, heartbreak, and what comes next. This collection of poetry and prose will justify heartache and inspire the fortitude to survive and prosper.From Chameleon Aura author Billy Chapata comes his second major poetry collection, Flowers on the Moon. Chapata presents his signature blend of experience and advice through a chaptered series of prose and poetry. Filled with the familiar themes of love, loss, resilience, and growth From Chameleon Aura but with fresh poems and new advice, his touching narrative celebrates humanity for its undeniable worth, and this collection will leave readers warm with hope for growth, rebirth, and, most prominently, self-acceptance.Trade Review"A thought-provoking and heartfelt collection." (Goodreads)
£11.39
Faber & Faber Postcolonial Love Poem
Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE 2021 PULITZER PRIZE IN POETRYSHORTLISTED FOR THE FORWARD PRIZE FOR BEST COLLECTIONSHORTLISTED FOR THE T. S. ELIOT PRIZEPOETRY BOOK SOCIETY RECOMMENDATIONPostcolonial Love Poem is a thunderous river of a book, an anthem of desire against erasure. It demands that every body carried in its pages bodies of language, land, suffering brothers, enemies and lovers be touched and held. Here, the bodies of indigenous, Latinx, black and brown women are simultaneously the body politic and the body ecstatic, and portrayed with a glowing intimacy: the alphabet of a hand in the dark, the hips' silvered percussion, a thigh's red-gold geometry, the emerald tigers that leap in a throat. In claiming this autonomy of desire, language is pushed to its dark edges, the astonishing dune fields and forests where pleasure and love are both grief and joy, violence and sensuality.Natalie Diaz defies the conditions from which she writes, a nation who
£11.69
Kodansha America, Inc The Haiku Handbook -25th Anniversary Edition
Book SynopsisThe Haiku Handbook is the first book to give readers everything they need to begin appreciating, writing, or teaching haiku. In this groundbreaking and now-classic volume, the authors present haiku poets writing in English, Spanish, French, German, and five other languages on an equal footing with Japanese poets. Not only are the four great Japanese masters of the haiku represented (Basho, Buson, Issa, and Shiki) but also major Western authors not commonly known to have written poetry in this form, including Gary Snyder, Jack Kerouac and Richard Wright. With aTrade Review"The most comprehensive compendium of the haiku—its nature, uses, and history—ever to appear in English or any other language except Japanese."—The New York Times Book Review
£16.99
Pan Macmillan Macbeth
Book SynopsisDark and violent, Macbeth is also the most theatrically spectacular of Shakespeare's tragedies. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is illustrated throughout by Sir John Gilbert, and includes an introduction by Dr Robert Mighall.Promised a golden future as ruler of Scotland by three sinister witches, Macbeth murders the king to ensure his ambitions are realized. But he soon learns the meaning of terror - killing once, he must kill again and again, and the dead return to haunt him. A story of war and witchcraft, Macbeth also explores the relationship between husband and wife, and the risks they are prepared to take to achieve their desires.Trade ReviewEvery generation continues to be in his debt. Shakespeare’s plots, which are brilliantly polyvalent, continue to inspire ceaseless adaptations and spin-offs. His unforgettable phrase-making recurs on the lips of millions who do not realise they are quoting Shakespeare * Guardian *
£9.49
Enitharmon Press Letters Against the Firmament
Book Synopsis
£9.49
Wordsworth Editions Ltd King Lear
Book SynopsisEdited, introduced and annotated by Cedric Watts, M.A., Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of English, University of Sussex. The Wordsworth Classics’ Shakespeare Series presents a newly-edited sequence of William Shakespeare’s works. The textual editing takes account of recent scholarship while giving the material a careful reappraisal. King Lear has been widely acclaimed as Shakespeare’s most powerful tragedy. Elemental and passionate, it encompasses the horrific and the heart-rending. Love and hate, loyalty and treachery, cruelty and self-sacrifice: all these contend in a tempestuous drama which has become an enduring classic of the world’s literature. In the theatre and on screen King Lear continues to challenge and enthral. This Wordsworth edition of King Lear provides a comprehensive, integrated text of the play.
£5.62
