A haiku, an ode, a sonnet, a limerick, an elegy ... more poetry,please.
Poetry Books
Rudolf Steiner Press Christmas Plays by Oberufer: the Paradise Play,
Book SynopsisFor hundreds of years, ordinary folk in the small Austrian village of Oberufer on the Danube gathered in the local tavern at Christmas time to perform these plays to their neighbours. With their roots lost in medieval times, the plays gradually evolved to incorporate a unique mixture of broad peasant humour and deep reverence in their celebration of the birth of the baby Jesus. "The Paradise Play" serves as a Preface, presenting the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise, but with the promise of future salvation through Christ. "The Shepherds Play" follows with its portrayal of the birth of Jesus in a stable where he is sought out by a group of simple shepherds. "The Kings Play", the final in the trilogy, depicts the visit of three wise Kings to the birthplace of the 'King of Humanity', and the murderous measures taken by Herod to try and thwart Jesus' mission. This revised edition of the plays - eminently suitable for amateur and professional companies alike - offers a clear layout of the texts, greatly elaborated director's and make-up indications, stage and lighting directions, and detailed costume designs illustrated in colour.
£10.99
Carcanet Press Ltd Colour for Solitude
Book SynopsisThis sequence of poems takes the reader into the early 20th century, to Northern Germany where a group of artists founded a colony in Worpswede, a rural community near Bremen. Fascinated by the number of self-portraits, Sujata Bhatt imagines the painters' inner and outer worlds.
£11.39
McSweeney's Leaves of Grass
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£62.71
Nick Hern Books The Flick
Book SynopsisAnnie Baker's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama about three cinema attendants - 'Wondrous, devastating, hilarious, and infinitely touching. A play to be treasured' New York Times. In a run-down movie theatre in central Massachusetts, three underpaid employees mop the floors and attend to one of the last 35-millimetre film projectors in the state. Their tiny battles and not-so-tiny heartbreaks play out in the empty aisles, becoming more gripping than the lacklustre, second-run movies on screen. With keen insight and a finely tuned ear for comedy, The Flick is a hilarious and heart-rending cry for authenticity in a fast-changing world. The Flick arrived at the National Theatre, London, in 2016, direct from New York, where it won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It went on to win Best New Play at the 2016 Critics' Circle Awards.Trade Review'Annie Baker's play is not just good. It is not just new. It's a new sort of good' * Observer *'Astonishing... The beauty of Baker's play lies in its portrait of three quietly desperate people... This is like no other play in London. It moves at its own unhurried pace and magically exposes the souls of lonely people in danger of being left behind in our new, digitised age' * Guardian *'A portrait of a generation struggling through life without moorings, that also beautifully and often hilariously observes the strange, fragile nature of work friendships, enforced intimacy with virtual strangers' * Time Out *'An understated epic of dreams, disappointment and tenacity by America's greatest living dramatist' * The Stage *'What makes The Flick so original and captivating is the way form really does match content… [conjures] a stillness that is almost like a painting, rewarding patience, forcing you to pay attention. It's a mighty achievement' * WhatsOnStage *'Wondrous, devastating, hilarious, and infinitely touching. A play to be treasured' * New York Times *'The Flick offers that beautiful, exquisitely alive feeling you get during the best moments of theatre – that life is too wonderful to be believed' * New Yorker *
£10.44
Canongate Books Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World
Book SynopsisAn immersive collection of poetry to open your world, curated by the host of Poetry UnboundThis inspiring collection, edited by Pádraig Ó Tuama, presents fifty poems about what it means to be alive in the world today. Each poem is paired with Pádraig's illuminating commentary that offers personal anecdotes and generous insights into the content of the poem.Engaging, accessible and inviting, Poetry Unbound is the perfect companion for everyone who loves poetry and for anyone who wants to go deeper into poetry but doesn't necessarily know how to do so.Poetry Unbound contains expanded reflections on poems as heard on the podcast, as well as exclusive new selections. Contributors include Hanif Abdurraqib, Patience Agbabi, Raymond Antrobus, Margaret Atwood, Ada Limón, Kei Miller, Roger Robinson, Lemn Sissay, Layli Long Soldier and more.Trade ReviewMesmerising, magical, deeply moving. I loved and adored this book! If you are looking for a read that will warm your heart, inspire your creative mind and renew your faith in the resilience of the human race, look no further -- ELIF SHAFAKA poem to Pádraig is like a child to Mary Poppins. It sits, alert, in wonder that he should know it so well. I would go out at night to hear Pádraig talk of the poems. The next best thing, maybe even better, is Poetry Unbound . . . There should be a copy of Poetry Unbound in every bar, every café, every train station, every bus station, every airport, every workplace, every school, every university, everywhere! -- LEMN SISSAYA wonderful anthology of poetry filled with fascinating and thought-provoking commentary from one of the best voices in contemporary poetry today -- WILLIAM SIEGHARTPádraig Ó Tuama is a bearer of light. He has been called to bring his illuminating insights into what some might consider encroaching darkness, and we are all the fortunate beneficiaries of his response. This collection of poems by fifty writers, with accompanying essays by Pádraig, is a testament to the rare fineness of feeling and understanding that mark his brilliant work for the On Being Project -- LORNA GOODISONThe Poetry Unbound podcast, and Pádraig's way of finding language to describe the details and intricacies and the shades of grey of the human experience, have made me a better person, a better songwriter and a better artist. Pádraig's perspectives have added so much beauty, wonder and comfort to my life, and I would urge everyone to dive into this deeply rewarding book -- CAMILA CABELLOPoetry Unbound is terrific and I have been dipping into this magnificent book with enormous pleasure. Pádraig Ó Tuama's abilities as a curator of poems, combined with his remarkable gift for unpacking poems in such illuminating and generous ways, makes this ground-breaking publication one of the most engrossing books I have read in recent years -- STEPHEN FRYA gorgeous book. Each stunning poem has been so lovingly selected by Pádraig Ó Tuama and then shared with so much generosity and care. This is an essential selection for poets and poetry lovers alike. I loved this glorious celebration of poetry and the ways it can navigate the heart and soul -- SALENA GODDENPádraig's close reading of my "Wonder Woman" poem was a gift. I was and am deeply moved -- ADA LIMÓNA journey of discovery; an anthology that provides a challenge on every page as well as a wealth of frank autobiographical material * * Daily Mail * *A collection that celebrates creativity, diversity and understanding * * Belfast Telegraph * *
£18.00
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Monster
Book Synopsis"He's got zero empathy. You could be having a conversation and start choking to death and he'd just think, 'Well, this conversation's over. He'd probably just sit there and finish eating whatever you were choking on."An inexperienced teacher is given the job of saving a disturbed and violent fourteen-year-old boy from permanent exclusion. Alone in the classroom, an intense battle of wills takes place. But what can be done when a child cares for no one and is afraid of nothing? Monster won two awards at the inaugural Bruntwood Playwriting Competition and was first performed in 2007 at the Royal Exchange, Manchester, where Duncan MacMillan was Writer-in-Residence.
£14.76
Penguin Publishing Group Metamorphoses
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£18.70
Prototype Publishing Ltd. Sorcerer
Book SynopsisSorcerer is a book in the form of a script/novel/manual about the pleasures of being with others and of being alone. Three friends hang out and share a long and unremarkable conversation about getting dressed, headaches, ticks, compression fantasies, surgery, and their aspirations, among other things. The characters find contentment in each other's company, conversing in the placid, eerie rhythms of a sitcom in which conflict never arises. When two of the friends go home for the night, the remaining one watches TV, dances, and takes apart his face in front of a giant mirror.Trade Review'Atkins and Zultanski's play redesigns the contemporary home as a machine for comedy, sadness, and anxiety. Sorcerer is a unique work of theatre and literature, beautiful and unsettling.' - Dan Fox; 'With Sorcerer, Ed Atkins and Steve Zultanski invite us 'round for an evening of conversational bricolage, word games, and mild social debarment (with grapes). We are privy to the trivial crosscut with the vital; we submit to compression fetish and sulphuric mythology; we ruminate on the merits of facial deconstruction, and most crucially of all, we are reminded once again about the awful sad joy of humanness and what it means to be alone.' - Graham Lambkin; 'Vivid on the page, Sorcerer is a surprising and compelling hallucinatory theatre text for a cast of three. In it a set of hyper-naturalistic micro-conversations are laid out in an unblinking deadpan; crisp dialogues that focus in on the body, mapping the detail of daily actions and experiences from the removal of clothing, to the acquisition of new skills, and the precise interior feeling of headaches. Atkins & Zultanski have made the score for a complex, haunting event.' - Tim Etchells; 'Sorcerer is the emphatic magic of lived-time actions. This is a dialogue between the object body and other objects, so distended and loud as to be near silent. Where each action held might also begin to corrupt, or stain, pulling too hard, tuning in and tearing out. A politics of who we are in how we are, learnt, programmed, actioned and acted.' - Ghislaine Leung; 'In this ingenious work, Zultanski and Atkins innovatively deploy both material and human gesture to paint a sad yet almost comic scenario of contemporaneity. A group of friends conduct inane conversation about subjects like how to take off your pants (with accompanying gestures), yet these people raise serious compassion in us, for they are us. Atkins and Zultanski's brand of drolly underwrought utterance show us once more that innovative device is the sine qua non of really good art.' - Gail Scott
£10.80
Antiga Shantarin, Lda Lisbon Poets: Camões, Cesário, Sá-Carneiro,
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£18.71
St. Martin's Publishing Group A Bit Much
Book SynopsisThe debut poetry collection from Lyndsay Rush (aka @maryoliversdrunkcousin) is a humorous and joyful celebration of big feelings, tender truths, and hard-won wisdom, for fans of Maggie Smith, Kate Baer, and Kate Kennedy.At long last, a book of poetry for people who didn't even know they liked poetry. And they're in good company: author Lyndsay Rush didn't know she liked it either. That is, until she embarked on an internet experiment under the Instagram username @MaryOliversDrunkCousin that turned into a body of work that struck a chord with women across the country; thanks to her signature wordplay, witticisms, andagainst all oddswisdom.With titles like Shedonism, Someone to Eat Chips With, It's Called Maximalism, Babe, and Breaking News: Local Woman Gets Out of Bed, Rush's debut collection of poetry uses humor to grapple with the female experiencefrom questioning whether or not to have children, to roasting the patriarchy, to challenging what it means to age
£15.30
Poetry Wales Press The Butterfly House
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£10.44
HarperCollins India How to Love in Sanskrit: Poems
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£11.64
Oxford University Press Macbeth
Book Synopsis''Will all great Neptune''s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?''Dark and violent, Macbeth is a restless, haunting exploration of the human costs of violence and power. One of the most theatrically spectacular of Shakespeare''s plays, Macbeth has endured as a psychologically and supernaturally sinister work. Emma Smith''s introduction considers the historical and contemporary contexts of the play, from the influence of the Gunpowder Plot as an act of domestic terrorism, to the combination of banal domesticity and pure horror in the play''s setting and events. The New Oxford Shakespeare offers authoritative editions of Shakespeare''s works with introductory materials designed to encourage new interpretations of the plays and poems. Using the text from the landmark The New Oxford Shakespeare Complete Works: Modern Critical Edition, these volumes offer readers the latest thinking on the authentic texts (collated from all surviving original versions of Shakespeare''s work) alongside
£6.99
Oxford University Press The Merry Wives of Windsor
Book Synopsis''Here will be an old abusing of God''s patience and the King''s English.''The Merry Wives of Windsor is the only Shakespeare play named entirely after female characters and his only comedy set in England. These features underscore some of its most immediately appealing qualities -- its contemporary realism; its depiction of everyday life; its interest in status and gender; and the language and physicality of its comedy. This edition''s introduction focuses on these elements of Merry Wives, setting out their historical contexts but also thinking about what they offer audiences and readers today. It addresses the place of the play within Shakespeare''s career and canon and the enduringly popular figure of Falstaff, before thinking about its generic peculiarities as a mixture of city comedy and domestic comedy. The edition gives readers a rich breadth of historical context and real-life examples through which to understand and appreciate the text. It also addresses Merry Wives''s popular
£6.99
Faber & Faber Blossomise
Book Synopsis** A Top Ten Sunday Times Bestseller **Simon Armitage, Poet Laureate, brings new perspectives and energy to a timeless poetic subject.Blossomise celebrates the ecstatic arrival of spring blossom just as it acknowledges, too, its melancholy disappearance. Full of spirited leaps of imagination and language, the twenty-one poems hopscotch between intense momentary haikus that honour the Japanese traditions of the blossom festival and stand-alone lyrical pieces that take in the stylistic tones of ballads, hymns, songs, prayers and nursery rhymes. From a crashed Ford Capri wrapped around the immovable trunk of a cherry tree, to saplings flourishing among skyscrapers and urban sprawl, the fizz and froth of the annual blossom display is explored here both as an exuberant emblem of the natural world and a nervous marker of our vulnerable climate. Angela Harding responds to the poems in wonderful accompanying illustrations.Published in collaboration with the National Trust as part of their annual Blossom programme and campaign.Simon Armitage''s book Blossomise was a Sunday Times bestseller w/c 23-03-2024
£9.50
Vintage Publishing I Brought the War with Me
Book SynopsisLindsey Hilsum is the International Editor for Channel 4 News. Her book, In Extremis: the Life of War Correspondent Marie Colvin won the 2019 James Tait Black Prize for biography. Recently she has reported on the war in Ukraine, Sudan and Israel/Gaza. She has covered the major conflicts and refugee movements of the past three decades, including Afghanistan, Syria, Mali, Iraq and Kosovo. From 2006-8 she was based in China, and in 1994 was the only English-speaking foreign correspondent in Rwanda as the genocide started. She has won many awards, including the Royal Television Society Journalist of the Year and the Royal Geographical Society Patron's Medal. She contributes regularly to newspapers and literary magazines. Her first book was Sandstorm: Libya in the Time of Revolution.
£15.29
Bloodaxe Books Ltd What the Earth Seemed to Say
Book SynopsisWhat the Earth Seemed to Say is a powerful collection of more than three decades of profound, luminous poetry from one of America's most daring and courageous poets. First UK publication in paperback only of her hardback New & Selected Poems from Norton in the US.
£13.49
Andrews McMeel Publishing Oaths
Book SynopsisThe poems within Oaths contain a promise made to oneself for a better future. Read with all the hope you can muster.A stunning and emotional follow-up to 2022’s Serenity, poet F.S. Yousaf continues his exploration of the self along the journey into adulthood in Oaths. This earnest collection picks up where Serenity left off, speaking to young readers who may be struggling with finding purpose in life and feeling hopeless in the face of recession, war, and division. Yousaf doesn’t offer answers, but a welcoming hand and a warm embrace to remind us all that we are not alone on the journey toward hope, love, and a life of meaning.
£11.69
Batsford A Happy Poem to Start Every Day
Book Synopsis This poetry anthology provides a bright and cheery way to start your day, with one joyful poem for every morning of the year. Whether you wake up to the chirping of birds or stumble out the door in a last minute rush, it''s important to take some time for yourself in the mornings to boost your mood. Before stepping into the day, prepare yourself with a jolly poem. You could allow the poem that has been selected for that date to soothe you, to excite you, to motivate you: whatever your needs, have a meditative morning moment with a happy poem to set yourself up for a successful day. With one happy poem for every single day of the year, keep this book by your bedside for a serotonin boost upon waking, on the kitchen counter for a pick-me-up while your coffee brews, or in your rucksack for a moment of (rare) commuting joy. With a delightful illustration for every month and a vast range of poems, it''ll be easy to find something that sparks joy within you. From t
£20.00
Galley Beggar Press The Book Of Desire
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£13.49
Andrews McMeel Publishing Self-Love for Small-Town Girls
Book SynopsisSelf-Love for Small Town Girls is an exciting offering from beloved bestselling author Lang Leav. A collection of stunning poetry and prose that seeks to define the loaded question of what it means to be a woman in the modern world.As women, we create lives with our bodies but often do not have autonomy over our own. We create worlds with our words yet struggle to be heard. Collectively, we yearn for the right to be treated with compassion and equity in our public and private spaces. The path to self-love is seldom a smooth one, especially for those who have further to travel. Self-Love for Small Town Girls is a book for anyone seeking the best and brightest version of themselves. Spanning decades of growth through self-analysis and introspection, Self-Love for Small Town Girls is Lang’s most personal and stunning collection to date.
£11.39
Indigo Dreams Publishing Resurrection of a Black Man
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£11.40
Renard Press Ltd The Tower: 1928
Book SynopsisFirst published in 1928, The Tower was Yeats's first collection published after receiving the Nobel Prize in 1923, and it is perhaps the major work that most cemented his reputation as one of the foremost literary figures of the twentieth century. The titular poem, 'The Tower', refers to Thoor Ballylee Castle, a Norman tower that Yeats purchased in 1917, and which formed the basis of the original cover design - evoked in the cover of this edition. The collection also includes some of his most inventive and profound work, and develops deep themes regarding life, love and myth. With explanatory notes, this edition seeks to bring the collection to a greater readership and to offer a more profound understanding of the great poet’s work.Trade Review'His verse is inspired, his poetic persona is magnificent.' (Peter Ackroyd, The Times) 'Together with Joyce, Yeats made modern Irish poetry possible.' (Timothy Webb)
£7.99
Copper Canyon Press,U.S. Dancing with the Dead: The Essential Red Pine
Book SynopsisAn essential collection from the leading figure of Chinese poetry translation, presenting work of insight, humor, and musicality that continues to resonates across thousands of years.Red Pine is one of the world''s finest translators of Chinese poetic and religious texts. His new anthology, Dancing with the Dead: The Essential Red Pine, gathers over thirty voices from the ancient Chinese past?including Buddhist poets Cold Mountain (Hanshan) and Stonehouse (Shiwu), as well as Tang-dynasty luminaries Wei Yingwu and Liu Zongyuan.Dancing with the Dead also includes translations from such religious texts as Puming?s Oxherding Pictures and Verses and Lao-Tzu?s Daodejing, as well as poems and woodblock illustrations from Su Po-Jen?s Guide to Capturing a Plum Blossom, one of the world?s first printed books of art.?Throughout the book, poems are accompanied by footnotes providing historical context, and each section includes a new and illuminating introduction chronicling Red Pine?s relationship to the poet?discovery, travel, scholarship. Dancing With The Dead is more than a book, it is a journey: part travel essay, part road map, part guided meditation. It is a history translated in poem.For Red Pine, ?translating the words in a Chinese poem isn?t that hard, but finding the spirit that inspired those words, the music of the heart, and asking it to inspire [his heart], that is how, and why, [he] translates.??our luggage is full of river travel poems?may we ride forth together again.?? Wei Yingwu
£15.19
Hogarth Normal People The Scripts
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£22.50
HarperCollins Publishers Home Is Not A Place
Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE BRITISH BOOK AWARDSBeautiful, haunting, thought-provoking A book I will return to again and again' Bernardine EvaristoA gorgeously produced, hugely original examination of Black Britishness in the 21st centuryWhat is Black Britain?In 2021, award-winning poet Roger Robinson and acclaimed photographer Johny Pitts rented a red Mini Cooper and decided to follow the coast clockwise in search of an answer to this question. Leaving London, they followed the River Thames east towards Tilbury, where the Empire Windrush docked in 1948. Too often, that is where the history told about Black Britain begins and ends but Robinson and Pitts continued out of London, following the coast clockwise through Margate to Land's End, Bristol to Blackpool, Glasgow to John O'Groats and Scarborough to Southend on Sea. Here, the authors found not only Black British culture long overlooked in official narratives of Britain, but also the history of Empire and transatlantic slavery to which everTrade Review’This beautiful, haunting, thought-provoking fusion of poetry and photography offers us layers of society, the self, the subconscious and Britishness from a Black perspective. It’s a book I will return to again and again’ Bernardine Evaristo, Booker Prize-winning author of Girl, Woman, Other ’Home is Not a Place has echoes of The Sweet Flypaper of Life but to compare them would do this work a disservice. It is a thing of brilliance, with its own immersive energy, pulling the reader in and allowing them to wander around the world of Black Britain created on these pages. In the authors’ hands, the quotidian becomes transcendent. Robinson’s words are as careful as they are masterful; Pitt’s casual gaze is warm and conversational. This is a book I have been waiting for’ Caleb Azumah Nelson, Costa Book Award-winning author of Open Water ‘Rich and evocative … Pitt’s photos capture the beauty of Black British culture’ Dazed – Praise for Afropean by Johny Pitts Winner of the Jhalak Prize 'A revelation' Owen Jones 'Afropean seizes the blur of contradictions that have obscured Europe's relationship with blackness and paints it into something new, confident and lyrical' Afua Hirsch A Guardian, New Statesman and BBC History Magazine Best Book of 2019 – Praise for A Portable Paradise by Roger Robinson WINNER OF THE TS ELIOT POETRY PRIZE 2019 WINNER OF THE RSL ONDAATJE PRIZE 2020 'Ranging from the most breath-taking poems about the Grenfell Tower fire to the most exquisitely moving poems about the premature birth of his son, who had to fight for his life in an incubator. His poems are deep, mature, moving and inventive.' Bernadine Evaristo for New Statesman
£21.25
Samuel French Ltd The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13
Book SynopsisLife''s pretty hard when you''re a 13 year-old misunderstood intellectual living in a cul-de-sac in 1981. With dysfunctional parents, ungrateful elders and a growing debt to school bully Barry Kent, Adrian Mole''s life simply couldn''t get any worse! So when luminous new girl Pandora joins Adrian''s class, things look set to change for our hapless hero. She immediately captures his heart, only for his best friend Nigel to steal hers...Based on the classic bestselling novel by Sue Townsend, this critically- acclaimed West End musical brings Britain''s best-loved spotty teenager''s story to life for a new generation of theatregoers.A perfectly realised British musical. - The Evening StandardA show for all ages. - The Daily TelegraphThis endearing and thoroughly enjoyable show should not be missed. - The Independent
£11.99
Andrews McMeel Publishing I Hope She Finds This
Book SynopsisA care package, left by r.h. Sin, found by you.From New York Times bestselling author, r.h. Sin, comes a care package of two new poetry and prose collections boxed together in an elegant slipcase.
£14.39
Rockridge Press How to Write Poetry: A Guided Journal with
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£14.44
Central Avenue Publishing Artemis Made Me Do It
Book SynopsisBestselling and award-winning author Trista Mateer returns with another magical approach to self-care in her newest goddess-themed poetry collection, Artemis Made Me Do It. Using the framework of tarot and conversation, Mateer approaches myth through a witchcraft-inspired lens and uses it to explore timeless issues like burnout, survival, trauma, and the restorative power in taking control of your own lore.Artemis speaks to what is wild and untamed in all of us, and in this new collection, she asks for a moment of calm.
£12.71
Faber & Faber The Almighty Sometimes
Book SynopsisI'm older now. I'm stronger. How do you know I haven't sorted out some natural equilibrium all on my own? Maybe we should try it, just for a bit. Diagnosed with a severe mental illness as a child, Anna was prescribed a cocktail of pills. Now a young adult, in her first serious relationship and about to go to university, she's wondering how life might feel without them. But as she tries to move beyond the labels that have defined her, her mother feels compelled to intervene - threatening the fragile balance they have both fought so hard to maintain. Winner of a Judges' Award at the 2015 Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting, Kendall Feaver's The Almighty Sometimes premiered at the Royal Exchange, Manchester, in February 2018. The play received the the UK Theatre Award for Best New Play at 2018.
£10.44
Spark Henry V
Book SynopsisNo Fear Shakespeare gives you the complete text of Henry V on the left-hand page, side-by-side with an easy-to-understand translation on the right.
£7.59
The Women's Play Press Ophelia Thinks Harder
Book SynopsisThese 19 characters can be played with a minimum of 9 actors doubling, if preferred. A riotous reworking of Shakespeare''s Hamlet. Featuring Ophelia, her maid, St Joan and a couple of locals -- Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. (7 male, 12 female).
£7.60
Bloodaxe Books Ltd Soul Food: Nourishing Poems for Starved Minds
Book Synopsis"Soul Food" is a feast of thoughtful poems to stir the mind and feed the spirit. Drawn from many traditions, ranging from Rumi, Kabir and Blake, to Rilke, Emily Dickinson and Paul Celan, this wide-ranging selection includes enormously varied work by celebrated contemporary poets such as Jane Hirshfield, Denise Levertov, Thomas Merton and Mary Oliver, as well as by many lesser-known writers from all periods and places. The anthology opens with a series of poems on human life and spiritual sustenance, starting with Rumi: 'This being human is a guest house./Each morning a new arrival...'. The poems which follow explore many ways of keeping body and soul together, offering food for thought on knowing yourself, living with nature, who or what is God...All are universal illuminations of the meaning of life, speaking to readers of all faiths as well as to searchers and non-believers. "Soul Food" shows how poetry can help feed our hunger for meaning in times of spiritual starvation.Trade Review'These poems illuminate the path of life.' - Rachel Campbell-Johnston, The Times 'These poems will reconnect you with happiness, kindness, beauty and joy. They will teaqch you how to be here, now, fully aware and alive... Buy this book! You will be investing in happiness for days - and even dark lonely nights - to come.' - Anne Ashworth, Universalist: The Journal of the Quaker Universalist Group 'A friend gave me a copy of Soul Food as a gift... I thought it was so good that I gave it away to another friend within a matter of days, and bought myself a new copy, which I also gave away... I continue to buy copies for friends... I have read this book through from beginning to end a number of times now, and each time I am left with my spirit uplifted and a wondrous sense of warm joy in my soul. Not only is each poem fine, but reading the whole collection reads feels like the privilege of sharing another human's spiritual journey for a while.' - Henry Morgan, The Merton Journal 'Soul Food is an extremely attractive book. Of all the books lying about my house, more visitors have been drawn to wanting to borrow this than any other... It contains work by many of my favourite poets, but more importantly it whets my appetite with new discoveries... I recommend buying copies to keep and give away.' - Chris Kinsey, Envoi ‘Soul Food, like another Bloodaxe anthology, Do Not Go Gentle: poems for funerals, captures the elusive overlapping oval in the Venn diagram of poetry-that-is-serious and poetry-that-breaks-your-heart.’ – Martin Wroe, Church TimesTable of ContentsSoul Food includes Anna Akhmatova, Maya Angelou, Coleman Barks, William Blake, John Burnside, Paul Celan, Chuang-Tzu, Emily Dickinson, Thich Nhat Hanh, Jane Hirshfield, George Herbert, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Kabir, Jane Kenyon, Lal Ded (Lalla), DH Lawrence, Denise Levertov, Thomas Merton, Czeslaw Milosz, Naomi Shihab Nye, Mary Oliver, Amrita Pritam, Rainer Maria Rilke, Rumi, St John of the Cross, Edith Södergran, Anna Swir, Wislawa Szymborska, Shinkichi Takahashi, RS Thomas, and many others…
£9.49
Profile Books Ltd The Lady in the Van
Book SynopsisIn 1974, the homeless Miss Shepherd moved her broken down van into Alan Bennett's garden. Deeply eccentric and stubborn to her bones, Miss Shepherd was not an easy tenant. And Bennett, despite inviting her in the first place, was a reluctant landlord. And yet she lived there for fifteen years. This account of those years was first published in 1989 in the London Review of Books. The play premiered in 1999, directed by Nicholas Hytner and starring Dame Maggie Smith, who reprise their roles in this new film adaptation. Shot on location at Bennett's house, Alex Jennings plays the author, alongside household names including Frances de la Tour, Jim Broadbent and Dominic Cooper.Trade ReviewPraise for Alan Bennett: 'Has you laughing as well as mopping your eyes. Utter genius * Daily Mail *Clear-eyed, touching, occasionally waspish ... ever honest * The Times *Alan Bennett continues to surprise and delight -- John Banville * Daily Telegraph *A perfect stocking filler for just about anyone -- Monica Ali * Guardian *
£6.99
Graphic Arts Books The Lady of the Lake
Book SynopsisAfter James Douglas and his daughter Ellen are banished from their home, they go into hiding with the help of several enemies of the king. The Lady of the Lake is an intricate story filled with political and social intrigue, romance and chivalry. James Douglas is the former Earl of Bothwell, who once mentored King James V of Scotland. He is currently exiled from the realm and living on the outskirts of the kingdom. Douglas and his daughter Ellen have found refuge on the island of Loch Katrine under the watch of its clan chief, Roderick Dhu. Roderick, the young Malcolm Graeme, and the mysterious knight, James Fitz-James vie for Ellen’s affection, while awaiting the king’s impending attack. The Lady of the Lake is a Gaelic classic that depicts the ongoing feud between highland and lowland Scots. It was a popular international release that entertained audiences across the globe. The story has stood the test of time and is a staple in children’s literature. With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of The Lady of the Lake is both modern and readable.
£9.49
Vintage Publishing Pilgrim Bell: Shortlisted for the 2022 Forward
Book Synopsis*AN OBSERVER BOOK OF THE YEAR 2021***Selected as one of TIME's 100 Must-Read Books of 2021**'Profound and singular, smart and sad and funny. . . We need Pilgrim Bell.' TOMMY ORANGEWith formal virtuosity and ruthless precision, Kaveh Akbar's second collection takes its readers on a spiritual journey of disavowal, fiercely attendant to the presence of divinity where artifacts of self and belonging have been shed. How does one recover from addiction without destroying the self-as-addict? And if living justly in a nation that would see them erased is, too, a kind of self-destruction, what does one do with the body's question, "what now shall I repair?" Here, Akbar responds with prayer as an act of devotion to dissonance - the infinite void of a loved one's absence, the indulgence of austerity, making a life as a Muslim in an Islamophobic nation - teasing the sacred out of silence and stillness.Richly crafted and generous, Pilgrim Bell's linguistic rigour is tuned to the register of this moment and any moment. As the swinging soul crashes into its limits, against the atrocities of the American empire, and through a profoundly human capacity for cruelty and grace, these brilliant poems dare to exist in the empty space where song lives - resonant, revelatory, and holy.America, I warn you, if you invite me into your homeI will linger,kissing my beloveds frankly,pulling up radishesand capping all your pens.There are no good kings,only burning palaces.-from 'The Palace''Very few living writers write so achingly toward God as Kaveh Akbar . . . each of the poems in this collection finds its target' LAUREN GROFFTrade ReviewVery few living writers write so achingly toward God as Kaveh Akbar . . . each of the poems in this collection finds its target -- Lauren Groff * Observer, *Books of the Year* *These are poems on the grand scale, staging dramas of cosmic light and dark -- David Wheatley * Guardian *Kaveh Akbar is the sorcerer's sorcerer, masterful in the way he wields language . . . Profound and singular, smart and sad and funny, but most of all truth's beauty and beauty's truth sung . . . We need Pilgrim Bell. We need Kaveh Akbar -- Tommy Orange, author of THERE THEREA measured, quiet pondering of intense subjects and subjectivities... Pilgrim Bell insistently travels to necessary places, with regard to the intimacies of faith, the landscapes of empire and the performativity and honesty of poetry. The poems are deeply considered and show a contemplative maturation of Akbar's voice -- Khairani Barokka * Times Literary Supplement *What thrilled me most about this book was another commitment: the commitment to writing discomfort, or ugliness. Doing it well, and doing it without insisting upon beautification. Pilgrim Bell is a book that chooses honesty over beauty, which makes it a breathtaking text -- Hanif Abdurraqib, author of A LITTLE DEVIL IN AMERICAKaveh Akbar is truly a great writer, and his new collection Pilgrim Bell is a marvel. Like his previous work, it dazzles us. Akbar is an unlikely prophet - hilarious and irreverent and self-deprecating. Yet even nonbelievers will travel the circles of faith and hellscape, love and rebuke, through his captivating voice. He is incapable of setting down a line that's less than luminous. Pilgrim Bell is destined to become a classic -- Mary KarrWorking at and along the outer edges of language, Pilgrim Bell calls us to attention and to attend to that which poetry and prayer share, while simultaneously demanding that we tend to the political, the social, the erotic - all that is quotidian and human . . . In Pilgrim Bell, the poet Kaveh Akbar, 'God's incarnate spit in the mud,' takes us down to the ground, to the prosaic, the dismissed and overlooked, the better to talk to the great Silence, bearer of many names including that of God -- M. NourbeSe PhilipIn this rich and moving collection, Akbar writes poems of contradiction and ambivalence centered on religious belief and ethnic and national identity. Evocative and polyphonic, surprising but never artificially shocking, Akbar's poems flit from the divine to the corporeal in the same breath . . . This impressive, thoughtful work shimmers with inventive syntax and spiritual profundity -- Publishers Weekly
£11.69
Nick Hern Books The Merthyr Stigmatist (NHB Modern Plays)
Book Synopsis'I have caused what might soon be a global situation because you've stopped thinking people like me are worth hearing.' Is something incredible happening in Merthyr? Sixteen-year-old Carys claims to have received the stigmata: Christ's wounds from the Cross. Are her wounds a sign from God? Carys thinks so – she wants to tell the world and demands to be heard. Siân, her teacher, is not so sure, and believes silencing Carys will keep her safe. But can she make sense of what is happening to her student? Lisa Parry's play The Merthyr Stigmatist is a fierce and exhilarating exploration of faith and truth, a hymn to community, and a testament to the power of young people. The play was shortlisted for the inaugural Theatre Uncut Political Playwriting Award, and first presented online in 2021, as a co-production between Sherman Theatre, Cardiff, and Theatre Uncut.Trade Review'Lisa Parry’s taut and stirring two-hander about faith and community in Merthyr Tydfil... deeply moving... feels like its own little miracle' * Guardian *'Stylish, tense and taut... a searing two-hander' * The Stage *'A piercing authenticity... a clear-eyed and compelling dissection of where religion meets politics... profoundly moving' * Exeunt Magazine *'An urgent and contemporary voice' * Theatre Weekly *
£9.49
Peter Pauper Press Inc. The Prophet Gift Edition
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£7.99
Prakash Books Kahlil Gibran: Collected Works of Kahlil Gibran
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£16.99
Samuel French Ltd The Black Prince
Book SynopsisFormer tax inspector Bradley Pearson is a writer who has published nothing - his precept is perfect; his maxim is to wait - unlike his best friend Arnold Baffin who is a prolific, highly-successful writer of second-rate novels. Now Bradley is to retire to his seaside cottage to write his masterpiece. In a series of smartly comic scenes, his departure is thwarted by a succesision of unwelcome visitors and crises: a wheedling ex-brother-in-law, a detested ex-wife, a suicidal sister, a distraught phone call from Arthur who has battered his wife Rachel. But when the Baffin's teenage daughter Julia asks Bradley to give her a tutorial on Hamlet, 'the god of love and art, the Black Eros, the Black Prince' is unleashed with dire and terrifying results.
£10.99
Turtle Point Press Divining Poets: Clifton: A Quotable Deck from
Book SynopsisPlainspoken, empowering, spare, wise beyond measure, Clifton’s words are a balm and a force of good for all: “The surest failure / is the unattempted walk.”Tracy K. Smith took a poetry workshop with Lucille Clifton following the death of her mother. The experience was an awakening. Clifton spoke of her own losses, centering not on the ideas of “letting go” or “making peace,” but of sustained communication with the departed. Clifton’s practices included using the Ouija board, or “spirit board,” as she called it, to make contact with the other world. “I sat rapt, envious, hopeful,” Smith writes, “listening to Clifton describe her own initiation into a fierce and forthright form of knowing.” Smith’s selections offer a gateway into the profound, moving, accessible, and useful notions of this essential poet. The Divining Poets Quotable Deck Series: Elegant, boxed sets of seventy-eight cards à la tarot decks, with oracular quotes from the world’s greatest visionary poets. Each card contains inspiring and provocative lines chosen for seekers to contemplate, memorize, or answer life questions. Complete with a display stand and how-to instructions, this pocket-sized wisdom is perfect for the holiday seasonTrade ReviewPraise for Lucille Clifton: "Lucille is a master of the epigram. Many of her best-loved poems . . . pack more emotional resonance into fewer lines than many novels achieve in hundreds of pages." —Harper's Bazaar "[Clifton] had an eye on the past, disrupting traditional tellings of American history to re-center the strength and creativity of Black women. . . . Clifton’s work was marked by her indelible style. She wrote short poems in entirely lowercase letters decades before it was a fad. Her sentences are economical; her punctuation thunders."—The Daily Californian "Clifton brings a complexity to something we imagined we understood — and a relentless honesty."—The New York Times "Lucille Clifton’s poetry, legendary for its sparseness of word and punctuation, spoke unflinchingly of personal hardship, the history of oppression and the human condition." —BillMoyers.com Praise for Tracy K. Smith: "Tracy K. Smith, former poet laureate, has a wonderful way with strange and haunting images that still manage to tell a resonant story." —Kwame Dawes, The Oregonian
£13.49
Pan Macmillan A Poem for Every Summer Day
Book SynopsisWithin the pages of Allie Esiri's gorgeous poetry collection, A Poem for Every Summer Day, you will find verse that will transport you to striking summer scenes and inspire adventure.The poems are selected from Allie Esiri’s bestselling poetry anthologies A Poem for Every Day of the Year and A Poem for Every Night of the Year.Perfect for reading aloud and sharing with all the family, this book dazzles with an array of familiar favourites and remarkable new discoveries. These seasonal poems – together with introductory paragraphs – have a link to the date on which they appear.Includes poems by Lord Byron, Sylvia Plath, Rudyard Kipling, W.B. Yeats and Langston Hughes who sit alongside Brian Bilston, Michael Rosen, John Agard and Kae Tempest.This soul-enhancing book will keep you company for every day of Winter. Enjoy more seasonal poetry collections with A Poem for Every Spring Day and A Poem for Every Autumn Day.
£15.29
Andrews McMeel Publishing shine your icy crown
Book Synopsis“make them rue the day they underestimated you.”amanda lovelace, the bestselling & award-winning author of the “women are some kind of magic” poetry series, presents shine your icy crown, the second installment in her new feminist poetry series, “you are your own fairy tale.” this is a story about not letting society dictate the limits of your potential. it’s time to take back your power & realize that you don’t need a king in order to be a queen.
£9.49
Pan Macmillan The Luckiest Guy Alive
Book SynopsisThe godfather of British performance poetry - Daily TelegraphThe Luckiest Guy Alive is the first new book of poetry from Dr John Cooper Clarke for several decades – and a brilliant, scabrous, hilarious collection from one of our most beloved and influential writers and performers. From the ‘Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman’ to a hymn to the seductive properties of the pie – by way of hand-grenade haikus, machine-gun ballads and a meditation on the loss of Bono’s leather pants – The Luckiest Guy Alive collects stunning set pieces, tried-and-tested audience favourites and brand new poems to show Cooper Clarke still effortlessly at the top of his game. Cooper Clarke’s status as the ‘Emperor of Punk Poetry’ is certainly confirmed here, but so is his reputation as a brilliant versifier, a poet of vicious wit and a razor-sharp social satirist. Effortlessly immediate and contemporary, full of hard-won wisdom and expert blindsidings, it’s easy to see why the good Doctor has continued to inspire several new generations of performers from Alex Turner to Plan B: The Luckiest Guy Alive shows one of the most compelling poets of the age on truly exceptional form.‘John Cooper Clarke is one of Britain’s outstanding poets. His anarchic punk poetry has thrilled people for decades ... long may his slender frame and spiky top produce words and deeds that keep us on our toes and alive to the wonders of the world.’ Sir Paul McCartneyTrade ReviewThe godfather of British performance poetry * Daily Telegraph *There are a legion of new young poets who rightly pay homage to Cooper Clarke -- Julian Hall * Independent *John Cooper Clarke has, arguably, not only the most recognizable silhouette in show business, but also the most infectious of poetic voices. -- Tim Adams * Observer *Witty and profane, his lyrics are best declaimed aloud, to make you laugh and encourage you to question everything. -- Bel Mooney * Daily Mail *A poet who writes about darkness and decay but makes people laugh, a human cartoon, a gentleman punk, a man who has stayed exactly the same for thirty years but never grown stale. John Cooper Clarke is an original -- Claire Smith * Scotsman *I say to people, have you heard of John Cooper Clarke and if they say, yes, yeah he's an absolute genius and you just go, 'oh - ok, you've saved me a lot of time -- Steve CooganJohn Cooper Clarke uses words like Chuck Berry uses guitar riffs melody and anger, humour and disdain in equal measure. He's the real deal, really funny and really caustic, the velvet voice of discontent. -- Kate MossJohn Cooper Clarke is one of Britain’s outstanding poets. His anarchic punk poetry has thrilled people for decades and his no nonsense approach to his work and life in general has appealed to many people including myself for many years. Long may his slender frame and spiky top produce words and deeds that keep us on our toes and alive to the wonders of the world. -- Sir Paul McCartney...nothing short of dazzling -- Alex TurnerPacy, punchy social satire. Reading it is like spending a night at the pub with your funniest friend, who also happens to have an astute take on everything from the state of the high street, to metrosexuality and the NHS. * Evening Standard *Most people who've been moderately exposed to John Cooper Clarke find it impossible to get through life without muttering the off word to themselves in that extraordinary accent of his. Well, now you've got an entire book to recite. * Strong Words *
£15.78
Nick Hern Books Backstroke
Book SynopsisA kaleidoscopic and compassionate play about a mother and daughter. Premiered at the Donmar Warehouse, London, in 2025, starring Celia Imrie and Tamsin Greig.
£9.89
"Utter" & Press L.A. Baby
Book Synopsis
£15.00
Pan Macmillan Whereas
Book Synopsis'I was blown away by Layli Long Soldier's WHEREAS.' Maggie Nelson, author of The ArgonautsWHEREAS confronts the coercive language of the United States government in its responses, treaties, and apologies to Native American peoples and tribes, and reflects that language in its officiousness and duplicity back on its perpetrators. Through a virtuosic array of short lyrics, prose poems, longer narrative sequences, resolutions, and disclaimers, Layli Long Soldier has created a brilliantly innovative text to examine histories, landscapes, her own writing, and her predicament inside national affiliations.A POETRY BOOK SOCIETY SPECIAL COMMENDATION.'In what is clearly a golden age for American poetry, Layli Long Soldier has to be out in front – one of the best collections of the century.' Andrew McMillanTrade ReviewIn what is clearly a golden age for American poetry, Layli Long Soldier has to be out in front – one of the best collections of the century. -- Andrew McMillan[WHEREAS] reminded me what careful language can do. It made me recommit to writing . . . and made me believe again in the power of writing and the truths that it can reveal for people and what that remembering and honoring the truth can do for the individual, but also for the group, for all of us. -- Jesmyn Ward, The New York Times I was blown away by Layli Long Soldier's WHEREAS--inspired by its trenchant, beautiful thinking about the relationship between political speech and literature's capacity to write back. And write back Long Soldier does, with a sensibility so sure of itself that I find myself simply standing back in admiration. -- Maggie Nelson, author of The ArgonautsLong Soldier reminds readers of their physical and linguistic bodies as they are returned to language through their mouths and eyes and tongues across the fields of her poems. * The New York Times Book Review *Using elliptical prose, blank spaces, crossed-out text, and Lakota words, Long Soldier articulates both her identity and her literary undertaking. * The New Yorker *Long Soldier’s movement between collective and personal makes this book intimate and urgent. She has charted new ways to write in what’s left out—and not merely in the margins either. WHEREAS offers a powerful reckoning. * National Book Critics Circle Award judges’ citation *Steeped in Native American history and current politics, Long Soldier's poetry is a melodious battle cry, an argument and a prayer for our nation's future. -- Morgan ParkerIf there's any justice in this world, Layli Long Soldier's WHEREAS will galvanize readers in the same way that Claudia Rankine did with Citizen. -- Stephen SparksLong Soldier's movement between collective and personal makes this book intimate and urgent. She has charted new ways to write in what's left out--and not merely in the margins either. WHEREAS offers a powerful reckoning. -- National Book Critics Circle Award judges' citationWHEREAS is a new offering of the deepest precedent. This gift of where as else, which no one could possibly ask for or deserve, bears and is borne by terrible and absolute testimony. Look at how we have laid waste, and how nothing in this book settles. With Long Soldier, in the interminable momentousness of her song, poetry itself is somewhere else. Maybe we can get there from there. -- Fred MotenIn Whereas, we are given a substantive act of intelligent, crafted resistance. * Harvard Review *Elegant, innovative, and necessary. * Buzzfeed *I would argue this debut is as close to a masterpiece as we can get. Released now in the UK, if you only ever read one collection of poems, may it be this. -- Anthony Anaxagoro
£10.44
