A haiku, an ode, a sonnet, a limerick, an elegy ... more poetry,please.
Poetry Books
Copper Canyon The New Economy
£18.15
Hawkwood Books Partly Sane Prose Merry and Rhyme
Book SynopsisAn eclectic collection of intimate insights into twenty-first century society with all its foibles, faults and frustrations.
£9.49
Bloodaxe Books Ltd Crowd Voltage
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£11.69
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC The Notorious Mrs Ebbsmith
Book Synopsis‘That is what marriage gives – the right to destroy years and years of life.’ Venice, Easter 1895. In the cafes around St Mark’s Square, all the gossip among the English ex-pat community is about two mysterious arrivals in the city. Agnes Ebbsmith is a young widow with a scandalous past. Travelling with her is Lucas Cleeve, an up-and-coming Tory MP who has abandoned his wife in London. Defying convention, Agnes and Lucas are refusing to marry, and living in a ‘compact’ together. But before long their peace is shattered by the arrival of Lucas’s aristocratic family from London. The Notorious Mrs Ebbsmith is a dramatic, entertaining,and utterly enthralling play by one of the greatest Victorian dramatists. This playtext, slightly adapted from the original,was prepared for its first ever revival, presented by Primavera at Jermyn Street Theatre in 2014. The Notorious Mrs Ebbsmith was last performed by Mrs Patrick Campbell in the West End in 1895. With an introduction to the play and its historical context by Dr Sos Eltis.Trade ReviewGripping and provocative, the work tackled the theme of social radicalism and questioned accepted conventions, posing questions that are as searching today as they were then. * Broadway World *Arthur Pinero's use of the "fallen woman" plot is an unusual one, with implications for the 1890s "New Women's" agenda that have continuing relevance today. * Women & Performance: a Journal of Feminist Theory *Shrewd and polished. * Michael Billington, The Guardian *The Notorious Mrs Ebbsmith can't have the same impact it had more than a century ago. But it still has something to say about marriage, even in the twenty-first century. * Four stars - What's on Stage *Written in 1895 and boasting a fiery female protagonist, The Notorious Mrs Ebbsmith is as radical as any contemporary feminist play. * Stage *The play has a lot to say - and it says it a lot. * Public Reviews *
£14.21
Vintage Publishing Under Milk Wood: A Play for Voices
Book Synopsis'It is spring, moonless night in the small town, starless and bible-black...'Under Milk Wood tells the story of a Welsh village during one spring day. It is populated by some of the best-loved characters in British literature. Lyrical, funny, moving, it is rooted in place but with a universality that has spoken to generations of readers. A Welsh epic, a work of poetic genius, a modern classic.'A tour de force of oral poetry which oozes word pictures and onomatopoeic musicality' GuardianTrade ReviewA tour de force of oral poetry which oozes word pictures and onomatopoeic musicality * Guardian *A dazzling combination of poetic fireworks and music-hall humor * New York Times *Dylan Thomas...was the most musical of poets. His work is so full of rhythm and melody that one of life's great pleasures is to read him aloud, feeling those syllables roll around your mouth while the rhythms find their ebb and flow -- Cerys MatthewsThomas stretches out his sentences into great, rolling, relentless waves, or crushes words together into compound coinages as the voices whisper and declaim: the play is bawdy, tragic, lyrical, sly, odd, familiar, broad and deep by turns * Guardian *I'm not sure anyone really needs my opinion on 'Under Milk Wood' as Thomas wrote it. But for what it's worth I think it's brilliant - time hasn't dimmed it, his language remains bracingly wild, elemental and weird * Time Out *
£8.54
Vintage Publishing Tongues of Fire
Book Synopsis** WINNER OF THE LAUREL PRIZE 2021 ****A SPECTATOR AND IRISH TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020****SHORTLISTED FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES / UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK YOUNG WRITER OF THE YEAR AWARD 2020****SHORTLISTED FOR THE JOHN POLLARD FOUNDATION INTERNATIONAL POETRY PRIZE 2021****SHORTLISTED FOR THE DALKEY LITERARY EMERGING WRITER OF THE YEAR AWARD 2021**A remarkable first collection by an important new poetIn this collection, Seán Hewitt gives us poems of a rare musicality and grace. By turns searing and meditative, these are lyrics concerned with the matter of the world, its physicality, but also attuned to the proximity of each moment, each thing, to the spiritual. Here, there is sex, grief, and loss, but also a committed dedication to life, hope and renewal. Drawing on the religious, the sacred and the profane, this is a collection in which men meet in the woods, where matter is corrupted and remade. There are prayers, hymns, vespers, incantations, and longer poems which attempt to propel themselves towards the transcendent. In this book, there is always the sense of fragility allied with strength, a violence harnessed and unleashed. The collection ends with a series of elegies for the poet's father: in the face of despair, we are met with a fierce brightness, and a reclamation of the spiritual. 'This is when / we make God, and speak in his voice.'Paying close attention to altered states and the consolations and strangeness of the natural world, this is the first book from a major poet.Trade ReviewSeán Hewitt soars... His poetry will stand the test of time, for...the sheer musicality of the language, the lightness on his metrical feet, and his keen ear for "the music of what happens" charm the reader into submission. This is an astonishingly assured debut delivered in a poetic voice that has eloquence, compassion, and serenity in equal measure...in the pantheistic tradition of Wordsworth, Whitman, John Clare, and Seamus Heaney... When it comes to nascent talent, we Irish have a tendency to mistake the fifth or sixth month of pregnancy for the ninth, thrusting premature greatness upon the liveliest embryos. By contrast, Hewitt seems to have sprung fully formed into the literary world and, on this showing, nothing seems beyond him. -- Bert Wright * Sunday Times *It is extraordinary to encounter a debut collection that feels as established as Seán Hewitt’s… These unmediated poems are, at the same time, charged: they pull you in swiftly, you become immersed… In ‘Tongues of Fire’, the title piece and last in the collection, the present is burning. It is an exceptionally moving poem – impossible to read without a lump in the throat… He grafts the people and circumstances of his life on to nature with unerring brilliance… This is, above all, a devotional collection and will lift the spirits of all who read it…. He has a gift for gravity, rootedness, calm… Hewitt has the confidence to relax and to allow his poems, in an unaffected and sometimes conversational way, to speak to the heart. -- Kate Kellaway * Observer *Poetry Book of the Month* *I fell into [Tongues of Fire] one morning and read the whole book through and it truly warmed my soul. He's an exquisitely calm and insightful lyric poet, reverential in nature and gorgeously wise in the field of human drama. It's a stunning collection of poems. -- Max Porter * Irish Times *Best Books of 2020* *Very accomplished poems. -- Sebastian Faulks * Spectator *Books of the Year* *This is an extraordinary collection - heart-bruising, tender - one to cherish, and live by. Though Hewitt moves us through anguish and destruction, love still glows; and in the dark undoings of these poems, decay lights the wildwood with its strange, ethereal foxfire. As Hewitt writes, "it is hard to tell where heaven starts"; I find it in these poems, which are beyond-gorgeous, beyond-glorious, blood-felt, feral, luminous. -- Fiona BensonSeán Hewitt understands that poetic form is sacred and mysterious. In these godforsaken times his reverent procedures are food for the soul. -- Michael LongleyI fell in love with these wild, heartsore, ecstatic poems. They lead us to deep, hushed places - in the woods and heaths, in our hearts and bodies - and unearth such tenderness and dark treasure. Tongues of Fire is a beautiful book and Seán Hewitt is an extraordinary writer. -- Liz BerryIn Tongues of Fire, Hewitt crafts poems of intense beauty and endless range, which glisten with queer desire... Considered and poised, every line in this stunning compilation surprises and nurtures. -- Uli Lenart * attitude, *Books of the Year* *
£10.00
Cinnamon Press The Taste of Glass
Book SynopsisA very varied and colourful collection. There are numerous poems about love, both personal and perhaps fictional. There is a strong awareness of the real world and Nature in all its varieties (not least in that very fine and unexpected poem ‘The Roses of Heliogabalus’), but nevertheless it is the sense of a strong imagination at work that transforms the Real into Poetry that is so striking about this book. This is not another volume of careful observations that have been workshopped out of existence, but something altogether more wild and meaningful. — Fred Beake What I enjoy most about Clive’s poetry is its capacity to surprise, to lull the reader into the promise of the familiar and then completely change their understanding, their expectations, their view of life itself. These are poems of nuance and feeling, tactile descriptions and human emotion, imagination and inventiveness. — Robert Garnham
£7.49
CARCANET PRESS LTD Eccolo
Book Synopsis
£10.79
Canongate Books With Love Grief and Fury
Book SynopsisWith Love, Grief and Fury contains love poems, for people and the planet. Grief poems brimming with compassion, mourning what was and contemplating what could be. And poems of fire and fury that will kick some ass, tell the truth and inspire change and hope.Over thirty years after she first stormed the UK poetry scene, the trailblazing and award-winning writer Salena Godden has produced her most audacious and definitive collection to date. Like a big sister''s arm around your shoulder, With Love, Grief and Fury is important and nourishing for the soul.
£15.29
Olympia Publishers To Whom it May Concern
Book Synopsis
£7.59
Nick Hern Books Clyde's
Book Synopsis'It's kind of a ritual, we speak the truth. Then, let go and cook.' In the bustling kitchen of a run-down Pennsylvania truck stop, the formerly incarcerated staff have been given a second chance. Under the tyrannical eye of their boss Clyde, this unlikely team strives to create the perfect sandwich, as they dream of leaving their past mistakes behind for a better life. Lynn Nottage's hilarious and hopeful play Clyde's premiered in 2021 at the Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis, becoming the most-produced play in the United States the following year. It received its European premiere at the Donmar Warehouse, London, in 2023, directed by Lynette Linton, who also directed the British premiere of Nottage's play Sweat at the Donmar. 'Lynn Nottage is remarkable and uniquely exhilarating' Washington Post 'Is there a better living American playwright than Lynn Nottage?' The Wall Street JournalTrade Review'A glorious, humane and penetrating comedy... uproarious fun with a serious undertow... like cult TV hit The Bear, but better' * Evening Standard *'Sublime... Lynn Nottage's mouthwatering play is a dish to be savoured' * Guardian *'Gritty but gorgeous... a vivid, life-enhancing play, full of heart, hope and humour... There are few finer writers working in contemporary American theatre than Lynn Nottage' * WhatsOnStage *'A laugh-out-loud comedy that has much to say about life beyond prison and the class circumstances that led to incarceration in the first place' * The Stage *'A mouthwatering kitchen drama from one of America's finest... Lynn Nottage's blisteringly funny play will leave you drooling' * Telegraph *'A great play... blue collar grit meets sitcom humour... a joyful feast' * The Times *'Stirs the soul with heart-wrenching intimacy' * Broadway World *'Riotously funny, peopled by characters you come to deeply care for, and skilfully constructed to keep you hooked' * Culture Whisper *'A little gem... a wonderful evocation of human hope, endeavour and creativity' * TheatreCat *
£10.44
Nick Hern Books A Ghost in Your Ear
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£10.44
Alma Books Ltd Pygmalion
Book SynopsisWhen professor of phonetics Henry Higgins wagers with Colonel Pickering that he could teach even a gutter-mouthed flower seller how to speak like a duchess, little does he expect that his social experiment will be riddled with difficulties, and that behind her cockney parlance the girl in question, Eliza Doolittle, has a mind, ideas and aspirations of her own. Things come to a crux when the creature starts to rebel against her creator – and the scene is set for a play that questions the class system, social appearances and the role of women in society. Universally regarded as Shaw’s most successful work, Pygmalion – here presented in its definitive 1941 version, with footnotes indicating the textual variants from the first volume edition of 1916 – has spawned a great number of adaptations, among them the famous 1956 Broadway musical My Fair Lady, and shows ancient myth’s undiminished ability to find new incarnations in modern life.
£6.99
Candlestick Press Ten Sonnets by William Shakespeare
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£7.41
Candlestick Press Ten Poems about Clouds
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£7.41
Candlestick Press Ten Poems about Brothers
£7.41
Candlestick Press Ten Sexy Poems
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£7.41
Candlestick Press Ten Poems about Wildlife
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£7.41
Arachne Press Vindication: poems by six women: 2018
Book SynopsisThe third of our #WomenVote100 Anthologies:a showcase for poets Arachne has previously published in anthologies, giving an opportunity to explore their writing in greater depth.These are poems made of myth and family, origins and anger, journeys and home: witty, clever, beautiful and sometimes harsh.Whilst not directly reflecting on the experience of women fighting for the vote, the concerns of women are foremost and are passionately addressed. My own sex, I hope, will excuse me, if I treat them like rational creatures, instead of flattering their fascinating graces, as if they were in perpetual childhood, unable to stand alone.From Vindication by Anne Macaulay, a found poem based on the work of Mary Wollstonecraft.
£8.54
Stewed Rhubarb Press Splenectomy
£6.00
Smith|Doorstop Books Threadbare
Book Synopsis
£5.96
Nine Arches Press The Snow Globe
Book SynopsisJenny Pagdin's powerful, sensitive and stark debut poetry collection details a first-hand experience of postpartum psychosis. Threaded through this book are extraordinary and courageous poems that illuminate, that settle and unsettle in equal measure that move through illness and recovery, through snow flurry and sunshine, towards love.
£10.79
Nine Arches Press Belief Systems
Book SynopsisThe poems in Tamar Yoseloff's Belief Systems act as a call to make something worthwhile from the wreckage of our world, in the spirit of the radical artists she evokes, such as John Latham, John Cage and Robert Rauschenberg visionaries who located power and beauty in what is forgotten.
£11.69
Candlestick Press Christmas Movies
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£6.95
Tapsalteerie cocoon
Book Synopsis
£9.50
Tapsalteerie Envy the Seasons: Haiku and haiku-like poetry
Book Synopsis
£9.50
And Other Stories Hardly War
Book SynopsisHardly War, Don Mee Choi's UK debut, defies categorisation. Using artefacts from Choi's father, a professional photographer during the Korean and Vietnam wars, she combines memoir, image, and opera to explore her paternal relationship and heritage. Here poetry and geopolitics are inseparable twin sisters, conjoined to the belly of a warring empire.
£13.49
The Conrad Press Poems of This Century and Poems of the Last
Book SynopsisA collection of poetry by one author
£17.99
Prakash Books 50 World's Greatest Poems
£8.99
Milkweed Editions You Are Here
Book SynopsisEdited and introduced by the twenty-fourth Poet Laureate of the United States, Ada Limn, this book challenges what we think we know about 'nature poetry', illuminating the myriad ways our landscapes - both literal and literary - are changing.
£16.00
Princeton University Press Stone
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£15.29
Gibbs M. Smith Inc Hope is the Thing with Feathers
Book Synopsis
£14.39
David R. Godine Publisher Inc When You See My Mother Ask Her to Dance
Book SynopsisAn intimate, autobiographical poetry collection from legendary artist and activist, Joan Baez. Joan Baez shares poems for or about her contemporaries (such as Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, and Jimi Hendrix), reflections from her childhood, personal thoughts, and cherished memories of her family, including pieces about her younger sister, singer-songwriter Mimi Fariña. Speaking to the people, places, and moments that have had the greatest impact on her art, this collection is an inspiring personal diary in the form of poetry. While Baez has been writing poetry for decades, she’s never shared it publicly. Poems about her life, her family, about her passions for nature and art, have piled up in notebooks and on scraps of paper. Now, for the first time ever, her life is shared revealing pivotal life experiences that shaped an icon, offering a never-before-seen look into the reminiscences and musings of a great artist. Like a late-ni
£18.04
Canongate Books Essentials
Book Synopsis'Great poems,' David Whyte has said, 'are not about experience, but are the experience itself, felt in the body.' Essentials is a collection of his own best poems, each in their way about capturing the experience itself, whether that is in the daily shifts, the ever-turning seasons or the bigger cycle of gain and grief that are part of our journey through life. Each poem is accompanied by a short context on where and when it was written. Together they form an elegant testament to David Whyte's most closely-held understanding - that human life cannot be apportioned out as one thing or another; rather, it is best seen as a living conversation, a way between and beyond, made beautiful by darkness as well as light, at its essence both deeply solitary and profoundly communal. This updated edition includes poems from his 2021 collection, Still Possible.Trade ReviewPRAISE FOR DAVID WHYTE:Keep this book by your bedside forever. I know I will -- ELIZABETH GILBERT author of EAT PRAY LOVEConsolations, it bears repeating, is an absolutely magnificent read - the kind that reorients your world and remains a compass for a lifetime -- MARIA POPOVAWe think we know what we are talking about, the meaning of things, the basic rules of language, until we read David Whyte's Consolations where we are forced to reassess everything and begin again. Such an essential and beautiful book -- NICK CAVEA word can know you better than you know yourself and I did not fully understand this until I read Consolations. It is an immensely powerful book. It is an extraordinary book . . . You will want to keep it forever -- LEMN SISSAYDavid Whyte makes the reading of poetry a matter of life and death. His poetry has moved me and changed me -- PAT CONROYSometimes a book you had never heard of resonates so profoundly that it leaves you wondering how you hadn't come across it. This is such a book, one that shakes you to the core and speaks to you in an intimate aside, a considered whisper that echoes through your days long after you turned the last page . . . Fully aware and observant * * The Lady * *
£13.49
Wordsworth Editions Ltd The Complete Poems of D.H. Lawrence
Book SynopsisWith an Introduction and Notes by David Ellis, University of Kent at Canterbury. Lawrence's reputation as a novelist has often meant that his achievements in poetry have failed to receive the recognition they deserve. This edition brings together, in a form he himself sanctioned, his Collected Poems of 1928, the unexpurgated version of Pansies, and Nettles, adding to these volumes the contents of the two notebooks in which he was still writing poetry when he died in 1930. It therefore allows the reader to trace the development of Lawrence as a poet and appreciate the remarkable originality and distinctiveness of his achievement. Not all the poems reprinted here are masterpieces but there is more than enough quality to confirm Lawrence's status as one of the greatest English writers of the twentieth century.
£6.23
Canongate Books Morning Glory on the Vine: Early Songs and
Book Synopsis'Glorious' Guardian'Revelatory' New Yorker'Evocative' Los Angeles TimesIn 1971, as her groundbreaking album Blue emerged as a singular commercial and critical success around the world, Joni Mitchell puzzled over what gift to give her friends that Christmas. The result was a handmade book, with only one hundred copies produced, filled with Joni's hand-written lyrics and reproductions of many of her stunning drawings - portraits, abstracts, random concertgoers, and more. Each was given to a friend and, until now, the edition has remained private. Today, with Morning Glory on the Vine, Joni's long-ago personal Christmas present is a present to us all.Trade ReviewGlorious * * Guardian * *I became engrossed in Mitchell's drawings while browsing the book - they're vivid, intimate - but her handwritten lyrics and poems are just as revelatory . . . Morning Glory on the Vine feels like an extension of Mitchell's already considerable reach - it's a way of better understanding what she found beautiful, and worth holding onto. It is also a reassuring, almost palliative object on its own: these drawings and writings, arranged so artfully and carefully, feel like an anchor in an increasingly unsteady world * * New Yorker * *The peerless Joni Mitchell isn't only one of the 20th century's greatest songwriters, she's also a water colourist of some distinction . . . It contains a rare intimacy and candour, as well as a unique gateway into Mitchell's inimitable music itself * * Metro, Books of the Year * *A collection of more than thirty original paintings steeped in a bygone era . . . Evocative . . . A revelation for her devoted listeners, Morning Glory on the Vine is a comforting and intimate look at what caught an artist's eye when she was at the peak of her chaparral mountain * * Los Angeles Times * *A showcase for another side of Joni Mitchell's prodigious talent * * Washington Post * *A warm, water-coloured invitation to Mitchell's Laurel Canyon years . . . Think of the book as an artful expression of friendship, a personal time capsule unearthed * * The Globe and Mail * *
£22.50
Oxford University Press The Playboy of the Western World and Other Plays
Book SynopsisJ M Synge was one of the key dramatists in the flourishing world of Irish literature at the turn of the century. This volume offers all of Synge''s plays, which range from racy comedy to stark tragedy, all sharing a memorable lyricism. The introduction sets Synge''s work in the context of the Irish literary movement, with special attention to his role as one of the founders of the Abbey Theatre and his work alongside W. B. Yeats and Lady Gregory. Includes: Riders to the Sea; The Shadow of the Glen; The Tinker''s Wedding; The Well of the Saints; The Play of the Western World; Deirdre of the Sorrows ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.Table of ContentsRiders to the Sea ; The Shadow of the Glen ; The Tinker's Wedding ; The Well of the Saints ; The Playboy of the Western World ; Deirdre of the Sorrows
£7.59
Pan Macmillan The Luckiest Guy Alive
Book Synopsis'The 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 and tried-and-tested audience favourites 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 *
£10.44
Faber & Faber Strategic Love Play
Book SynopsisWith acid wit, Miriam Battye's play takes a scalpel to modern romance. Strategic Love Play opened at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, in July 2023, produced by Paines Plough, Soho Theatre and Belgrade Theatre, in association with Landmark Theatres.Winner of a Fringe First Award for outstanding new writing.
£10.44
HarperCollins Publishers Britain AD
Book SynopsisLeading archaeologist Francis Pryor retells the story of King Arthur, legendary king of the Britons, tracing it back to its Bronze Age origins.The legend of King Arthur and Camelot is one of the most enduring in Britain''s history, spanning centuries and surviving invasions by Angles, Vikings and Normans. In his latest book Francis Pryor one of Britain's most celebrated archaeologists and author of the acclaimed Britain B.C.' and Seahenge' traces the story of Arthur back to its ancient origins. Putting forth the compelling idea that most of the key elements of the Arthurian legends are deeply rooted in Bronze and Iron Ages (the sword Excalibur, the Lady of the Lake, the Sword in the Stone and so on), Pryor argues that the legends'' survival mirrors a flourishing, indigenous culture that endured through the Roman occupation of Britain, and the subsequent invasions of the so-called Dark Ages.As in Britain B.C.', Pryor roots his story in the very landscape, from Arthur's Seat in EdinburTrade Review‘Controversial deceptively clever and a damn good read.’ BBC History Magazine Praise for ‘Britain B.C.’: ‘Francis Pryor has given us a remarkable, imaginative and persuasive account of those other Britons…its enthusiastic and confident approach deserves to be very influential.’ TLS ‘A compulsive narrative intertwining prehistory, the excitement of discovery and personalities. It bounds along, wonderfully enlivened by Pryor’s earthy enthusiasm.’ New Scientist Praise for ‘Seahenge’: ‘A magnificent book…a vivid story, superbly told. It gives a wonderfully clear explanation of how archaeology works, written in plain language which all can understand and enjoy.’ Magnus Magnusson
£11.69
HarperCollins Publishers The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Other Poems
Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics.Instead of the cross, the AlbatrossAbout my neck was hung'When an albatross leads a stricken ship out of treacherous ice, a hapless mariner shoots the bird, arousing the wrath of spirits who pursue the ship. Haunted by Death, the crew begin to perish one by one, until only the cursed mariner remains to confront his guilt. As penance for his actions he is condemned to wander the earth, telling his tale to those he meets as a warning.The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is Samuel Taylor Coleridge's longest major poem and marks the beginning of the romantic movement in British literature. This edition also includes many of Coleridge's other works, including Kubla Khan, Christabel and a selection of the conversation' poems.Trade Review‘The greatest sea poem in the language’ Jonathan Raban ‘The Poem contains many delicate touches of passion…a great number of the stanzas present beautiful images, and are expressed with unusual felicity of language’ William Wordsworth ‘Astonishingly, the poem's spell doesn't seem to weaken over the years…The scenery remains thrillingly hellish, while laced with photographically realistic meteorological effects, and the narrative drive is irresistible’ Guardian
£5.62
Oxford University Press Aeneid Oxford Worlds Classics
Book Synopsis''Arms and the man I sing of Troy...'' So begins one of the greatest works of literature in any language. Written by the Roman poet Virgil more than two thousand years ago, the story of Aeneas'' seven-year journey from the ruins of Troy to Italy, where he becomes the founding ancestor of Rome, is a narrative on an epic scale: Aeneas and his companions contend not only with human enemies but with the whim of the gods. His destiny preordained by Jupiter, Aeneas is nevertheless assailed by dangers invoked by the goddess Juno, and by the torments of love, loyalty, and despair. Virgil''s supreme achievement is not only to reveal Rome''s imperial future for his patron Augustus, but to invest it with both passion and suffering for all those caught up in the fates of others. Frederick Ahl''s new translation echoes the Virgilian hexameter in a thrillingly accurate and engaging style. An Introduction by Elaine Fantham, and Ahl''s comprehensive notes and invaluable indexed glossary complement the translation. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.Trade ReviewReview from previous edition 'Frederick Ahl captures the pathos..to splendid effect. His version reproduces the fierce, hurtling momentum of the original...he is acutely sensitive to the intricate texture of Virgil's Latin. No pun or anagram or play on words escapes his attention; the subtlety as well as the stateliness of the original shines through in every line. In maintaining this difficult balance, Mr Ahl has produced the finest translation of the 'Aeneid' in recent memory. * New York Sun, 9 January 2008 *
£9.49
Nick Hern Books Long Day's Journey into Night
Book SynopsisA true modern classic from one of the twentieth century's most significant writers, Long Day's Journey into Night is an intensely autobiographical, magnificently tragic portrait of the author's own family - a play so acutely personal that he insisted it was not published until after his death. One single day in the Tyrones' Connecticut home. James Tyrone Snr is a miser, a talented actor who even squanders his talent in an undemanding role; eldest son Jamie is an affable, whoremongering alcoholic and confirmed ne'er-do well; youngest son Edmund is poetic, sensitive, suffering from a respiratory condition and deep-seated disillusionment; and their mother Mary, living in a haze of self-delusion and morphine addiction. Existing together under this roof, and the profound weight of the past, they subtly tear one another apart, shred by shred. 'Set in 1912, the year of O'Neill's own attempted suicide, it is an attempt to understand himself and those to whom he was irrevocably tied by fate and by love. It is the finest and most powerful play to have come out of America' Christopher Bigsby Eugene O'Neill's play Long Day's Journey into Night was written in 1939-41, and first published in 1956 (after O'Neill's death in 1953). It was first performed at the Royal Dramatic Theatre, Stockholm, in February 1956, and had its first American production at Helen Hayes Theater, New York, in November that year. It won the Tony Award for Best Play, and O'Neill was posthumously awarded the 1957 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. This edition includes a full introduction, biographical sketch and chronology.Trade Review'A piercingly autobiographical vision of a family bent on self-destruction' * Evening Standard *'Eugene O'Neill's masterpiece' * The Times *'What never ceases to astonish is the dizzying emotional contradiction of O'Neill's characters. Within a tight classical structure, they bounce around like pinballs between reality and illusion... leaves you emotionally pulverised' * Guardian *'A semi-autobiographical masterpiece... [has] an emotional truth that is utterly devastating' * WhatsOnStage *'Eugene O'Neill's greatest play... [has a] horribly uncomfortable power. The family's arguments suck you in, forcing you to become a fifth member whose loyalties are endlessly called on in a shifting game of 'Who ruined whose life?'' * Time Out London *
£8.54
SPCK Publishing Wounded I Sing
Book Synopsis
£10.44
Oxford University Press Richard II
Book Synopsis''For God''s sake, let us sit upon the ground,And tell sad stories of the death of kings''Crowned as a child, Richard II only knows power. The King''s court tire of his fickle, greedy reign, but it is only when he exiles his own cousin, Henry Bolingbroke, and attempts to steal his inheritance that they are pushed to act. What follows threatens Richard''s crown and with it his sense of self. Shakespeare''s most tragic history play uses the rich and messy familial web of monarchy to explore what it means to crave power, to hold it, to fight to take it, and to lose it. Richard II is Shakespeare''s most human and tragic history play, a story about the ways power distorts a ruler''s sense of self. 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 innovative introductions from leading scholars. The texts are accompanied by a comprehensive set of critical apparatus to give readers the best resources to help understand and enjoy Shakespeare''s work.ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
£7.59
Everyman The Iliad
Book SynopsisOne of the foremost achievements in Western literature, Homer''s Iliad tells the story of the darkest episode of the Trojan War. At its center is Achilles, the greatest warrior-champion of the Greeks, and his conflict with his leader Agamemnon. Interwoven in the tragic sequence of events are powerfully moving descriptions of the ebb and flow of battle, the besieged city of Ilium, the feud between the gods, and the fate of mortals.
£15.29
Pan Macmillan New Selected Poems
Book SynopsisCarol Ann Duffy is the most humane and accessible poet of our time' Rose Tremain, Guardian New Selected Poems contains poems chosen by Carol Ann Duffy from her first six acclaimed collections, from Standing Female Nude to Feminine Gospels, and a handful of other poems collected here for the first time. Endlessly varied and wonderfully inventive, this volume is the perfect introduction for new readers, the essential selection for students, and a glorious sum of parts for old acquaintances.
£999.99
Bloomsbury Publishing (UK) People Places and Things
Book SynopsisMacmillan doesn't shy away from difficult questions about addiction and recovery and, rightly, doesn't answer them ... this is a bold, timely and searching play - Financial TimesEmma was having the time of her life. Now she's in rehab. Her first step is to admit that she has a problem. But the problem isn't with Emma, it's with everything else. She needs to tell the truth. But she's smart enough to know that there's no such thing. When intoxication feels like the only way to survive the modern world, how can she ever sober up?People, Places & Things premiered at the National Theatre in 2015 before transferring to London's West End and St. Ann's Warehouse in New York. This edition is published to coincide with the return to the West End in June, 2024
£10.99
