A haiku, an ode, a sonnet, a limerick, an elegy ... more poetry,please.
Poetry Books
Everyman Blues Poems
Book SynopsisThe blues has left an indelible mark on the work of a diverse range of poets: from "The Weary Blues" by Langston Hughes and "Funeral Blues" by W. H. Auden, to "Blues on Yellow" by Marilyn Chin and "Reservation Blues" by Sherman Alexie. Here are blues-influenced and blues--inflected poems from, among others, Gwendolyn Brooks, Allen Ginsberg, June Jordan, Richard Wright, Nikki Giovanni, Charles Wright, Yusef Komunyakaa, and Cornelius Eady. And here, too, are classic song lyrics-poems in their own right-from Bessie Smith, Robert Johnson, Ma Rainey, and Muddy Waters.The rich emotional palette of the blues is fully represented here in verse that pays tribute to the heart and humor of the music, and in poems that swing with its history and hard-bitten hope.
£10.80
Everyman James Joyce: Poems
Book SynopsisJames Joyce is most celebrated for his remarkable novel Ulysses, and yet he was also an accomplished poet. Chamber Music, his debut collection, fused the styles of the Celtic Revival with his own brand of ironic exuberance. Pomes Penyeach, a collection written when Joyce had published Dubliners and was completing A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, explores intimate themes of adultery, jealousy, and betrayal that would reappear transformed in the later Ulysses. Joyce's occasional verse includes the well-known "Ecce Puer," written for his newborn grandson, and his satirical poems "The Holy Office" and "Gas from a Burner." These poems are brought together here with Joyce's play, Exiles--about an unconventional couple involved in a love triangle--in a beautiful, accessible hardcover edition for the general reader.
£9.99
Everyman Measure For Measure
Book SynopsisTwo contemporary poets turns their attention to poetry as a living, rhythmic, often musical performance. Their wide-ranging selections encompass epic, folk songs, the Romantics, the Victorians, poets of the Harlem Renaissance and contemporary hip hop. For many readers, the most familiar poetic metre is the iambic pentameter of Shakespeare, but this only scratches the surface of the extraordinary diversity of rhythmic patterns that poets have employed over the ages. Measure for Measure has sections on Accentual Metre (Kipling, Bishop, Auden), Trochees (Blake, Dickinson, Dorothy Parker), Anapests (Byron, Frost, Langston Hughes); other sections cover iambs, ballads, and more exotic metres like amphibrachs, dipodics, hendecasyllabics and sapphics
£9.49
Everyman Montale: Poems
Book SynopsisMontale's incandescently beautiful poetry is deeply rooted in the venerable lyric tradition that began with Dante, but he brilliantly reinvents that tradition for our time, probing the depths of love, death, faith and philosophy in the bracing light of modern history. Montale's poems teem with allusion and metaphor but at the same time are densely studded with concrete images that keep his complex musings firmly tethered to the world. Montale's reputation is international and enduring, and he has influenced generations of poets around the world. This volume contains selections from all his greatest works, rendered into English by the accomplished poet and translator Jonathan Galassi. It serves as both an essential introduction to an important poet and a true pleasure for lovers of contemporary poetry.Trade ReviewMontale gave the Italian lyric a dissonant new music, a rapturous counter-eloquence. He is the Debussy of modern poetry, and in Jonathan Galassi's fresh translation ... the English-speaking reader is given clear access to a body of work that has a severe majesty. * The New Yorker *
£10.44
Everyman Hip Hops: Poems about Beer
Book SynopsisFrom Li Bai's 'Bring in the Ale' to Ted Kooser's 'Beer Bottle'; from Robert Burns's' John Barleycorn' to Carol Ann Duffy's 'John Barleycorn' (no, you are not seeing double), the poems collected here attest to humankind's long and joyous (mostly) relationship with the world's most popular alcoholic beverage. A surprising number of authors, and perhaps some surprising authors, have added their tributes to the brew. Here, to name but a few, we find Charles Baudelaire, John Betjamen, William Blake, Bertolt Brecht, Raymond Carver, Amy Clampitt, Emily Dickinson, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Graves, Langston Hughes, Eric Idle, E. Nesbit, Flann O'Brien, Frank O'Hara, Sylvia Plath, Arthur RImbaud, Rumi and Hank WIlliams, all rather less than sober. Unsurprisingly, 'Anon.' is widely represented, in particularly exuberant spirits. There are recipes, and hangovers (inevitably); there's singing ... a hymn to NInkasi, ancient Sumerian goddess of beer, Prohibition protest songs and old English drinking catches; there is philosophy (of a sort), and consolation. Whether pulling up at the celestial bar in Keats's 'Mermaid Tavern' or at the grittier, jazzier one in Carl Sandburg's 'Honky Tonk in Cleveland, Ohio', lovers of beer and poetry are sure to find something to celebrate in these pages.
£10.44
Everyman Picturehouse Poems: Poems About the Movies
Book SynopsisThe variety of subjects is dazzling, from movie stars to bit players, from B-movies to Bollywood, from Clark Gable to Jean Cocteau. More than a hundred poets riff on their movie memories: Langston Hughes and John Updike on the theaters of their youth, Jack Kerouac and Robert Lowell on Harpo Marx, Sharon Olds on Marilyn Monroe, Louise Erdrich on John Wayne, May Swenson on the James Bond films, Terrance Hayes on early Black cinema, Maxine Kumin on Casablanca, and Richard Wilbur on The Prisoner of Zenda. Orson Welles, Leni Riefenstahl, and Ingmar Bergman share the spotlight with Shirley Temple, King Kong, and Carmen Miranda; Bonnie and Clyde and Ridley Scott with Roshomon, Hitchcock, and Bresson. In Picturehouse Poems, one of our oldest art forms pays loving homage to one of our newest—the thrilling art of cinema.
£10.44
Everyman Poems from Greek Antiquity
Book SynopsisThere is a great deal more to Greek poetry than the Iliad or the Odyssey. Shorter masterpieces abound, and the lyrical and elegiac poems, odes, and epigrams in this volume give an unparalleled sampling of them. Included here are selections from the early Greek poets - from Hesiod, Pindar and Bacchylides, Alcaeus and Sappho; from the later Alexandrian poets Theocritus, Bion, Apollonius of Rhodes, and many more. A whole section is devoted to poems from the celebrated Greek Anthology, which spans a thousand years from the Classical to the Byzantine age, and another to the Anacreontea, the delightful collection of odes on the pleasures of drink, love, and beauty which has been popular for centuries both in the original Greek and in English. Excerpts from somewhat longer poems include Percy Bysshe Shelley's 'Homeric Hymn to Mercury' and the hugely entertaining Homeric pastiche 'The Battle of the Frogs and Mice'.Paul Quarrie's selection of English translations draws fruitfully on the work of lesser-known as well as more famous names. In these pages poets jostle with Regius Professors of Greek at Oxbridge, professional writers and translators with enthusiastic amateurs including teachers, librarians, aristocrats, diplomats, civil servants, bankers, soldiers and clergymen. Historically their translations range from anonymous versions produced in Tudor England through the golden age of translation presided over by George Chapman in the seventeenth century, to modern translations by James Michie, Fleur Adcock and Robert Fagles. The editor provides an informative preface, introductions to the Greek Anthology and the Anacreontea, and biographies of translators where bibliographical detail is set off by colourful anecdote.
£10.80
Everyman Poems of Healing
Book SynopsisFrom ancient Greece and Rome (Sappho, Marcellus Empiricus) to the current Covid 19 crisis (Eavan Boland's 'Quarantine'), poets have responded with sensitivity and insight to the troubles of the human body and mind. Poems of Healing is a small treasury of their words, illuminating many different experiences of illness, injury and convalescence, from John Donne's 'Hymne to God My God, In My Sicknesse' to Thom Gunn's 'The Man with Night Sweats'; from Anne Finch's 'Spleen' to Jane Kenyon's 'Prognosis'; from Emily Dickinson's 'The Soul has Bandaged moments' to Seamus Heaney's 'Miracle'. Here are poems from around the world, by Baudelaire, Hugo, Rudaki and Cavafy; by Masaoka Shiki, Miroslav Holub and Zbigniew Herbert. Shakespeare and Milton; Tennyson and Emily Bronte; Charlotte Mew, Sylvia Plath, Wallace Stevens, W. H. Auden, Tony Harrison and Carol Ann Duffy are all present at the sickbed. Messages of hope in the midst of pain - in such masterpieces as Adam Zagajewski's 'Try to Praise the Mutilated World', Wislawa Szymborska's 'The End and the Beginning' and Stevie Smith's 'Away, Melancholy' - make this a perfect gift for anyone on the road to healing.
£10.80
Everyman Little Poems
Book SynopsisDip into this inspired assortment of concise masterpieces, and draw out - a fragment of Sappho from ancient Greece, a perfect haiku from Japan; a brief nature poem by John Clare, Robert Frost, Ted Hughes or Boris Pasternak; a compact love poem by Alexander Pushkin or Anne Bradstreet, Robert Herrick or Carol Ann Duffy; a miniature story by Hardy, Rumi or Roethke; a pithy meditation by Wang Wei, Emily Dickinson, Tennyson or Lorca. Dip again, and discover the compressed wit of Dorothy Parker and Ogden Nash; contemporary poets Simon Armitage and Moniza Alvi at their most succinct; short poems in very odd shapes from Apollinaire and Vaclav Havel ... So few lines, so much variety: epitaphs and epigrams; couplets and quatrains; lyrics, limericks and lullabies - go on, dip again.
£11.40
Everyman German Romantic Poets
Book SynopsisGerman Romantic poetry is both fluid and formed, and it is full of song: the poems themselves are often intrinsically lyrical, and many of them inspired some of the best-known musical compositions of the nineteenth century. In this collection, we see German Romantic poets confronting life''s greatest moments and greatest challenges - love, loss, death - and producing beautiful, and sometimes witty, works in response. Admiration for nature, in for particular the dramatic forests which still cover large areas of Germany, is also prominent in their work. Characters from myth and folklore abound too, most famously Lorelei, an enchantress who is associated with the River Rhine, and who features in several poems in this volume. Gathered here are favourites such as Goethe''s ''Erl King'', Eichendorff''s ''Night of Moon'', Heine''s ''In May, the magic month of May'', along with works by some of the most famous women writers of the period, Sophie Mereau, Karoline von Günderrode and Annette von
£10.80
Canongate Books Listener
Book SynopsisListener overflows with love poems, inner-city soap operas, reflections on history, mystery and felicity and much more. Every page sings with Sissay's unique voice - visionary, good-humoured and bursting with life.Trade ReviewHis name is magic, his poems are songs on the street. * * Independent * *Hugely enjoyable, inventive, funny and touching. * * Guardian * *The product of an imagination that is rare, passionate, committed, occasionally distraught and tender. * * Straight No Chaser * *Sissay writes of love, hate, politics and everyday trivia with an accessible, compelling and unusual honesty. * * Big Issue * *[Listener] presents on page its very own visual and musical sparkle... -- Mary Mazzilli * * Incorporating Writing * *A work of vision and playfulness whose poems address everything from war and colonialism to love e-mails . . . Piercingly beautiful. * * Big Issue * *
£9.49
The Lilliput Press Ltd Skelligs Haul
Book SynopsisSkelligs Haul is a generous compilation of Michael Kirby's prose and poetry, appealing for his simple, elegant style, his knowledge of unique local lore, and his inimitable observations. Kirby, a man who spent nearly every day of his ninety-nine years on the beautiful Iveragh peninsula, apart from a brief period in the United States, knew better than most that survival demanded persistence, passion, civility and good humour. In the shadow of the World Heritage site of Skellig Michael, he eked out a living fishing and farming with intimate knowledge of every inch of sea and soil. This volume, organised thematically, demonstrates Kirby's great gift of expressing the artist's fresh, passionate insight in elegant, plain language and with the dispassionate slant of a scientist. His knowledge of local birds and fish was as encyclopaedic and forensic as his grasp of place names. Referred to as `one of the last authentic expressions of the Gaelic tradition, artlessly fusing the worlds of flesh and spirit', he was a mystic who found his God, his solace and serenity in every living thing in Iveragh. This book includes some dual texts of poems freely translated from Irish by Kirby, showing that his inward eye led to verse in both the romantic vein and the fine tradition of Irish-language religious verse. This collection also presents reproductions of his landscape paintings, an introduction by poet Paddy Bushe and an editor's preface and note.Trade ReviewMichael Kirby had a poet’s heart, a painter’s eye and the unsentimentality of a scientist. -- Mary Shine Thompson * Irish Times *The way he lived his life affirmed something I have always known about creative expression: that it comes from the heart as well as the mind. -- Jane Urquhart
£14.25
The Lilliput Press Ltd Scattered Love
Book Synopsis'She came in like a shadow. She slid and bore herself into my eye, between my eyelids which blinked against the dust.' She is Maud Gonne, the muse of writer William Butler Yeats. Yeats here returns as a ghost, after having been buried in France in 1939 in the cemetery of Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, to be returned to Ireland a decade later. He emerges from his grave to recount his thwarted love with Maud, a story that merges with that of the independence movement of Ireland, of which they were both emblematic actors. Yeats' ghost has suddenly arisen because diplomatic documents long kept secret have resurfaced, casting doubt on the contents of the coffin brought back into Ireland for a state funeral. Where did the poet's body go? Does he still hover, as he wrote, 'somewhere above the clouds'? What remains of our loves and our deaths, if not their poetry? Besserie's exciting new novel follows on from Yell, Sam, If You Still Can (Le Tiers Temps), translated by Cliona Ni Riordain. In Maylis Besserie's second novel, she turns her attention from Samuel Beckett to another iconic Irish writer, W. B. Yeats. The connection between France in Ireland is once again explored in the context of art, culture and the days at the end of life.Trade Review'Scattered Love is a haunting and immersive read, written with the kind of lyricality and depth of tone appropriate for a novel infused with the presence of Yeats. Besserie is almost painterly in the way she employs words, drawing her readers deep into the story she's telling. This is a poem of a novel; the perfect vehicle for capturing Yeats in all his rich complexity.' JAN CARSON 'Maylis Besserie's beautiful novel casts a brilliant light on life and love and death and what remains of us ... The elegant prose and fluid translation have a balming, soothing quality. It is strange and fascinating to read Yeats's sublimely ventriloquised voice, and Madeleine's quest is absorbing, comedic, touching and true. The magic of Yeats has new life here.' DONAL RYAN 'A truly beautiful literary novel from a wonderful storyteller.' JOSEPH O'CONNOR
£13.30
Little, Brown Book Group Auguries Of Innocence
Book Synopsis* From the poet, artist and rock music legend comes her first collection of poems since 1979. Patti Smith is one of the most influential and important artists in rock history.
£10.44
Salt Publishing natural histories
Book SynopsisNature is not so much the subject as an unavoidable force in these poems, providing space and fodder for meditations on our knowledge of self and other. Here, the small histories that complement or contradict grand narratives come to the fore. Hasler adopts the stance of the naturalist, seeking to observe and collect, but with the imagination working alongside the eye. Along the way these poems confront questions of naming and categorising, and ask how our environments and our past affect us, and we them. How did we become? Change and adaptation is the key here. The manner of investigation never shies away from the fact that nature can be both deeply personal and unfamiliar. Rather it embraces both of these aspects and uses them to construct its own narrative, one of shaping and discovery. Much like the subjects contained within them, poems have their own organic forms, adapted to purpose. It is this adaptation combined with precision and sentiment that give this debut force and vitality.Trade Reviewscrupulously attentive poems (that) compare favourably with the Elizabeth Bishop of “Sandpiper” -- John Mole * Times Literary Supplement *Table of Contents Lubbock’s Box Rhododendron St Jerome and the Chaffinch Maldives The Cormorants Badger Natural History The Safe Harbour Great Tit Pigeon Snow To a Woodpecker Belle Isle Species A Flightless Bird The Paragliders Echolocation Familiar Things Notes
£8.58
Peepal Tree Press Ltd Pepper Seed
Book SynopsisMalika Booker is a British writer of Guyanese and Grenadian parentage. Her poems are widely published in anthologies and journals including, "Bittersweet: Contemporary Black Women's Poetry," "Black & Asian Poets," "Out of Bounds," ""and "Ten New Poets." She has represented British writing internationally, both independently and with the British Council, and has written for the stage and radio. She was the first Poet in Residence at the Royal Shakespeare Company and is the author of "Breadfruit."
£8.54
Peepal Tree Press Ltd Sanctuaries of Invention
Book SynopsisIn the year of Covid-19, lockdowns, and in Trinidad a state of emergency, it’s not surprising that thoughts turn to the nature of time, place and the not quite accidental arrival of pandemics of mass death. For Jennifer Rahim, time is both the history that has shaped the present and the now of social and geographic constriction. At the beginning of the collection, “A Tale of the Orbis Spike, 1610” (the recorded dip in carbon dioxide levels when around fifty million native peoples of the New World were exterminated as the result of European settler invasion), reminds that pandemics have their own history, though never without human triggers. At the end of the collection, “No /Language is a Virus” records the viral power of language for both good and ill, the latter not least in the era of Trump and the resurgence of racist white nationalism in Trinidad’s big neighbour to the north. But Rahim also reminds us how much solace we have derived from poetry this last year, because “Words fly the grave, steal/ the only thunder a virus can claim,/ and, alive,/ witness to goodness that quietly thrives.” Between those two points, the collection expands out of the restrictions of home, that place where “We’re strategizing for survival/ strip-searching every sneeze/ for an invisible assassin suited in capsid” – though sanctuaries of invention can be found in the smallest spaces – to map the wider worlds of memory and desire – in a vivid series of poems (“mapping home”) that chart journeys from Valencia, through Salybia, Balandra, Rampanalgas, Cumana, Toco and L’Anse Noir – places that Rahim’s poems bring to sensuous geographic, human and historical life and make you want to visit,.With the celebration of heroes who range from the fighting women of Greek myth, to poetic inspirations from Marian Moore to Eric Roach, Jennifer Rahim urges that “Hope/ must always be bold/ and sharpened for tomorrows”.
£9.49
Peepal Tree Press Ltd Sanctuary
Book SynopsisThis rich and wide-ranging anthology is the second in a series produced by the Peepal Tree/Inscribe Readers and Writers Group. Edited by Jacob Ross, the book contains work by previously published and debut writers.
£10.79
Gwasg Carreg Gwalch Seasons in the Sun
Book SynopsisA poetry collection by the north Wales-based poet Annest Gwilym. It comprises 31 poems of free verse focused in general on nature and the seasons. These form a backdrop to the poet''s personal reflections on how place has affected her life. The ocean is a repeating theme, and there is also a thread of Welsh mythology woven through the collection.
£9.33
Little, Brown Book Group A Brief Guide to Classical Civilization
Book SynopsisA general introduction to the classical world from its origins to the fall of the Roman Empire. The book focuses on questions of how we know about Classical civilization from archaeology and history; deals with the Mycenaean era and the world of Myth and Epic in Homer's Iliad & Odyssey; gives an outline of Greek history in the 5th & 4th Centuries BC; looks at Greek social life and the alternative model of Sparta, and considers the achievements of the Greeks in their art and architecture, tragedy and comedy. Turning to Rome, it engages with Roman history, the Roman Epic tradition, the fascinating features of Roman social life, analyses Roman satire, explores the urban environment in Pompeii and Herculaneum, and concludes with the End of Rome.
£12.34
Ebury Publishing The Path to SelfLove
Book Synopsis''A sanctuary of comfort and self-discovery'' VEX KINGSelf-love is doing the fun things, but also practising the hard ones. Self-love is going travelling, but self-love is also coming home. Self-love is about where each new day takes you - because sometimes you feel like hiding away from everyone, and sometimes you feel ready to take over the world.''Whether you''re hoping to overcome loss or heartbreak, set healthy boundaries or find resilience when things don''t go as planned, Ruby Dhal''s gentle and open-hearted voice will help you cultivate self-love to transform all aspects of your life.Using a mixture of nurturing prose poetry, personal stories and hard-won insight, exercises and journaling, The Path to Self-Love will empower you to access your inner strength, trust in yourself and build the life you deserve.
£15.29
Birlinn General Between Mountain and Sea: Poems From Assynt
Book Synopsis'Two Men at Once' is one of Norman MacCaig best known poems. He was indeed two men at once: Edinburgh, the city where he was born and lived as a teacher and poet, was his home, but no other place shaped his poetry more than Assynt in Sutherland. It is here that he would spend many a summer on family holidays, walking the hills and fishing the lochs. MacCaig’s fresh eye saw remarkable newness even in the everyday and each poem is a tiny revelation, a new look at an old friend. This collection celebrates, renews, and rediscovers Norman MacCaig’s Assynt.Trade Review'[Reveals] the poet’s relationship with Assynt, a relationship that lasted forty years and informed his imagination as no other place did. An excellent introduction to the formal trajectory of MacCaig’s work' * Times Literary Supplement *'I have always loved the mixture of strictness and susceptibility in Norman MacCaig's work. It is an on-going education in the marvellous possibilities of lyric poetry' -- Seamus Heaney'I have read or re-read every poem [in the Collected Poems], and I think it one of the greatest literary experiences of my life' -- Sorley MacLean'Whenever I meet his poems, I’m always struck by their undated freshness; everything about them is alive, as new and essential, as ever' -- Ted Hughes
£12.34
Birlinn General To Mind Your Life: Poems for Nurses and Midwives
Book SynopsisNursing staff throughout the world have endured an unprecedented increase in distress, anxiety and depression. Physical and mental health have come under attack from anxiety, depression, elevated blood pressure and increased stress hormone production. More than ever, the importance and urgency of initiatives which promote nurses' and midwives' wellbeing should be emphasised. Pocket Poetry: Poems for Nurses and Midwives is a companion of poems intended to provide encouragement and consolation to those on the frontline of our care sector. The poems themselves explore the meaning of nursing, midwifery and compassion in order to promote new nurses' and midwives' self-care and wellbeing. The poems in this selection demonstrate the empathy and benevolence crucial to the profession, and include works on the relationship between nurse and patient, as well as the meaning and fulfilment of nursing for those who have chosen that career.
£6.99
Birlinn General In a Time of Distance
Book SynopsisWhat really counts in this life? For the writer, Alexander McCall Smith, it is friendship and love themes that crop up time and again in his novels. And it is these themes that he explores in this collection of poems, with moments that swoop and soar, and descriptions that will make you laugh and realign your view.This collection reminds us to look at the world differently, to stop once in while and look up at the sky.
£11.40
Alma Books Ltd The Rape of the Lock and A Key to the Lock
Book SynopsisWhen Lord Petre had the effrontery of cutting off a lock of Lady Arabella Fermor’s hair, a veritable war erupted between the two noble families. A mutual friend, saddened by their estrangement, asked Alexander Pope, then a young poet, to write a poem about it, in order to make a joke of it and “laugh them together again”. But the result – which in its ingenuity and poetical brilliance reaches peaks of epic sublime – concealed darker and more dangerous undertones that unleashed an even greater storm between the parties involved – and among the whole literary world of the time. As Belinda glides along the Thames admired for her beauty and the crafty Baron schemes to take his prize, a host of supernatural beings – elves, sylphs, gnomes – dance around them to avoid the impending doom, in what is Pope’s crowning poetical achievement and perhaps the greatest satirical poem ever written. Included in this volume are the original two-canto version of The Rape of the Lock and Pope’s hilarious mock-interpretation of the poem as a seditious work, A Key to the Lock.Trade ReviewNever has so great a poem emerged from so trivial a cause. The stolen hair has achieved immortality. -- Peter Ackroyd
£7.59
Alma Books Ltd Complete Poems: Annotated Edition (Great Poets
Book SynopsisAlready with thee! tender is the night, And haply the Queen-Moon is on her throne, Cluster’d around by all her starry Fays; But here there is no light, Save what from heaven is with the breezes blown Through verdurous glooms and winding mossy ways. Despite his tragically short life, John Keats, a self-confessed “rebel Angel”, endures for many as a personification of the Romantic age. While contemporary critics mocked him as a “Cockney poet” and an uneducated lower-class “apothecary” who aspired to poetry, subsequent generations began to see and appreciate both the rich and impassioned sensuousness and the love of beauty and liberty that pervade his work. From Endymion and Hyperion to ‘The Eve of St Agnes’, ‘La Belle Dame sans Merci’ and the Odes, this collection, which presents Keats’s oeuvre in chronological order, displays his rapid poetic growth, the development of his philosophical and spiritual beliefs and the voluptuous, silken nature of his verse.Trade ReviewNo one else in English poetry, save Shakespeare, has in expression quite the fascinating felicity of Keats, his perfection of loveliness. -- Matthew Arnold
£9.49
Alma Books Ltd Beowulf: Dual Language and New Verse Translation:
Book SynopsisOf unknown date, and surviving in a tenth-century manuscript, Beowulf is the tale of a young Geatish hero and his struggle with three deadly foes, beginning with the dread monster Grendel, who has been devouring warriors in the hall of the Danish King in their sleep. The most important Old English poem, and the first known major poem written in a European vernacular, Beowulf is a unique and compelling mix of sixth-century historical events, Christian commentary, Germanic myth and Anglo-Saxon culture. The poem is presented here in a dual-text format with a new translation by multi-award-winning translator J.G. Nichols.Trade ReviewThe whole thing is sombre, tragic, sinister, curiously real. -- J.R.R. Tolkien
£9.25
Alma Books Ltd The Testament and Other Poems: New Translation
Book SynopsisThe most celebrated of French medieval poets, François Villon makes poetry out the basest material the raw urban life of Paris with its petty officials, students, clergy, tradesmen, pimps, whores and thieves. Despite successful studies, the young Villon immersed himself in this world, embarking on a career of petty crime that brought him repeated imprisonment. Condemned to death, but then reprieved and banished from Paris, he disappears from history in 1463, leaving behind a legend of poète maudit that has never lost its fascination. Violent, indignant, ribald and often brutally physical, Villon s verse has a formidable satiric thrust, and yet it also encompasses passages of poignant nostalgia and haunting lyric expression, culminating in his digressive autobiographical masterpiece, The Testament, which counts among the most popular texts of French poetry.
£9.49
Carcanet Press Ltd Watering Can
Book SynopsisCaroline Bird's two earlier collections were acclaimed for their exuberant energy, surreal imagination and passion - 'a bit of a Howl for a new generation', wrote the "Hudson Review". "Watering Can" celebrates life as an early twenty-something. The poems, writes Caroline Bird, 'contain prophetic videos, a moon colonised by bullies, weeping scholars, laughing ducks, silent weddings - all the fertiliser that pours on top of your head.' The extraordinary verve and compassion of her verse propels us into the anxiety of new responsibilities. Raw but never hopeless, "Watering Can" has comedy, wordplay and bright self-deprecation.Trade ReviewWhat an original captivating and spellbinding voice. Bird is fearless like 'the girl who dropped her ice-cream down a volcano and leaped in after it'. She's dangerous and witty too with a rare quality of imagination. This is a wonder, a beautifully written book of poems. - Lemn Sissay
£9.45
Carcanet Press Ltd Ice
Book SynopsisThe author turns to the real winters of 2009 and 2010. In their extremity they redefined all the seasons for her. Nature asserted itself and renewed the environment for the imagination. This book also includes the 'asked for' and commissioned poems, and the Guardian spreads Clarke has written during her time as National Poet of Wales.
£9.45
Carcanet Press Ltd Parallax
Book SynopsisThe T S Eliot Prize-winning fifth collection of poems by the inaugural Belfast laureate, and one of Northern Ireland's greatest female poets.
£9.45
Nick Hern Books This Wide Night
Book SynopsisA tender portrayal of two women trying to start again after serving their time in prison. On her release from prison, Lorraine heads straight to Marie's. On the inside they used to share everything, but the friendship that once protected them now threatens to smother the fragile freedom they have found. Chloë Moss's play This Wide Night was first performed at Soho Theatre, London, in August 2008, in a production by Clean Break, the theatre, education and new writing company that works with women whose lives have been affected by the criminal justice system. It was revived, in this revised version, at Soho Theatre in November 2009. This Wide Night won the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize in 2009.Trade Review'Heartrending... beautifully written: comic, colourful, full of pain and tenderness and truth' * The Times *
£11.39
Nick Hern Books The God of Soho
Book SynopsisA hectic and hilarious morality tale for the modern world. In Heaven, Big God's mind is crumbling, Mrs God has lost her looks, and their daughter, Clem, the Goddess of Love and Sex and Beauty, has been rejected by her lover and banished to Earth. Down in the streets of Soho, Clem searches for something new, and finds it in glamorous and self-loathing reality-TV star Natty, whose fetishistic love life with rock star Baz is about to hit the headlines. Sexy, feisty and real, it is a story about love at its dirtiest, maddest and most bittersweet. Chris Hannan's play The God of Soho was first performed at Shakespeare's Globe, London, in 2011.Trade Review'Written in a heightened, lightly learned, scatological style that lifts the show to the edge of a mythical, classical plane... vibrant, sensational' * Whatsonstage.com *'Rumbustious verve... clipped, aggressive, scatological language that invites winningly vivacious performances' * Guardian *'Best of all, though, is Hannan's writing, which is dense, beautiful and shit-spattered - rather like Soho.' * Time Out *
£9.49
Nick Hern Books Clybourne Park
Book SynopsisAn acerbically brilliant satire that explores the fault line between race and property. In 1959, Russ and Bev are selling their desirable two-bed for a knock-down price, enabling the first black family to move into the neighbourhood and alarming the cosy white urbanites of Clybourne Park, Chicago. In 2009 the same property is being bought by Lindsey and Steve, a young white couple, whose plan to raze the house and start again is met with a similar response. As the arguments rage and tensions rise, ghosts and racial resentments are once more uncovered... Bruce Norris's play Clybourne Park was first performed at Playwrights Horizons, New York City, in February 2010. The play received its European premiere at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in September 2010, transferring to Wyndham's Theatre in the West End in February 2011. The play received numerous awards, including the London Evening Standard Award for Best Play, the Critics Circle Award for Best New Play, the Olivier Award for Best New Play, the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.Trade Review'The funniest play of the year' * Evening Standard *'Will make you cringe horribly even as you're cracking up with laughter' * Time Out *'Genius' * The Times *'Amazing mixture of edgy humour and deeper feeling' * Telegraph *'Stunningly well written' * Whatsonstage.com *'Outrageously funny and squirm-inducing' * Independent *
£9.99
Nick Hern Books Bang Bang Bang
Book SynopsisStella Feehily brings her trademark wit and emotional insight to this revealing play that goes behind the public face of charities, journalists and NGOs, and is drawn directly from workshops and interviews with aid workers, doctors, human rights defenders, government advisers, journalists and photographers. A seasoned human rights defender and her idealistic young colleague embark on a trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo. For Mathilde, it's an induction into a life less ordinary. For Sadhbh it's back to madness and chaos away from her lover and London – exactly as she likes it. But while Mathilde lets off steam with a photographer and a spliff, Sadhbh has her own encounter: tea with a smart but brutal young warlord she's investigating. Stella Feehily's play Bang Bang Bang was first performed at the Octagon Theatre, Bolton, in 2011, in a production by Out of Joint that subsequently toured the UK, including performances at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in October 2011.Trade Review'Ambitious, well-researched and sharply presented' * Guardian *'Stella Feehily's best work to date' * Whatsonstage.com *
£9.49
Nick Hern Books Swallows and Amazons
Book SynopsisArthur Ransome's famous and much-loved children's classic is brought thrillingly to life in Helen Edmundson's wonderfully theatrical adaptation, with 'delightfully catchy and often witty' (Telegraph) songs by Neil Hannon of The Divine Comedy When John, Susan, Titty and Roger are granted their wish to set sail on their beloved boat Swallow, they know it will be the summer holiday of a lifetime. But their adventure truly begins when they encounter Nancy and Peggy, the self-proclaimed Amazon Pirates, and the dastardly Captain Flint. This adaptation was first performed at the Bristol Old Vic in 2010. It had its West End premiere in 2011.Trade Review'Warm hearted, affectionate and fun' * Daily Telegraph *'Perfect – a brilliant feat of nerve and humour' * Daily Mail *'Full of wild adventure' * Guardian *'Infectious... Helen Edmundson provides a sprightly script' * Financial Times *
£11.39
Nick Hern Books Let the Right One In
Book SynopsisA dark and visceral coming-of-age vampire love story, based on the acclaimed novel and film. Oskar is a bullied, lonely, teenage boy living with his mother on a housing estate at the edge of town, when a spate of sinister killings rocks the neighbourhood. Eli is the young girl who has just moved in next door. She doesn't go to school and never leaves the flat by day. Sensing in each other a kindred spirit, the two become devoted friends. What Oskar doesn't know is that Eli has been a teenager for a very long time… Jack Thorne's adaptation of Let The Right One In, based on the novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist, premiered in June 2013 at the Dundee Rep Theatre in a production by the National Theatre of Scotland, before transferring to London's Royal Court Theatre in November 2013. It won the South Bank Sky Arts Award for Theatre in 2014.Trade Review'Exquisitely sad and witty... [it will] wring your heart while scaring the mortal stuffing out of you' -- Ben Brantley * New York Times *'Extraordinary… sets new standards in atmospheric scariness… takes you to the edge of human experience with eye-opening candour, beauty and ingenuity' * WhatsOnStage *'Astonishing... at once beautifully intimate and bedazzingly epic' * Time Out *'Exquisitely beautiful and heartbreakingly sad… so painfully tender that, as you watch the show, it feels as if layers of your skin are gradually being flayed from your body' * Guardian *'Remarkable… gratifyingly scary… dark and striking' * Telegraph *'Moving and haunting... a rich and beautiful theatrical experience that is by turns gripping and tender' * Herald *'A chilling and moving piece of theatre, full of pain, terror and unexpected moments of comedy' * Scotsman *
£10.44
Nick Hern Books Pressure
Book SynopsisAn intense real-life thriller centred around the most important weather forecast in the history of warfare. June 1944. One man's decision is about to change the course of history. Everything is in place for the biggest invasion ever known in Europe – D-Day. One last crucial question remains: will the weather be right on the day? Problematically there are two opposing forecasts. American celebrity weatherman Colonel Krick predicts sunshine, while Scot Dr James Stagg, Chief Meteorological Officer for the Allied Forces, forecasts a storm. As the world watches and waits, General Eisenhower, Allied Supreme Commander, must decide which of these bitter antagonists to trust. The decision will not only seal the fates of thousands of men, but could win or lose the entire war. An extraordinary and little-known true story, David Haig's play thrillingly explores the responsibilities of leadership, the challenges of prophecy and the personal toll of taking a stand. Pressure premiered at the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, in May 2014 before transferring to Chichester Festival Theatre, in a production directed by John Dove, with the author playing James Stagg.Trade Review'The tension is palpable and expertly maintained throughout, with real wit and warmth as well... Haig has obviously done his research, and then smartly played with the facts for full dramatic effect. You wouldn't think a story about predicting the weather could play like a thriller, but it does… a rip-roaring evening's entertainment' * Radio Times *'Utterly engrossing… unostentatiously and with a quiet intensity, Pressure covers a lot of ground without ever resorting to patriotic cliché' * Whatsonstage.com *'This highly watchable, microscopic look into the mechanics of battle is nothing short of enthralling. It's also surprisingly humorous; Haig's dialogue feels quintessentially British and for that reason it resonates fondly' * Broadway World *'Fascinatingly original… with its moments of comedy and atmosphere of high stakes, this is an excellent documentary drama' * The Arts Desk *'Haig has researched his subject matter in great detail, but more importantly the play grabs the attention from the outset and never loosens its dramatic grip. It captures the extraordinary pressure its characters are under at this crucial turning point in the Second World War, with wit, compassion and sheer dramatic verve. By turns funny, tense and deeply affecting. I cannot recommend it too highly' * Telegraph *'Sharp, witty and affecting… events flow across the stage like sunlight and shadow on a changeable summer's afternoon – fast and hectic, tense and fraught, calm, thoughtful' * Guardian *'A tense, tight and quite brilliant drama… more moving than a dozen Saving Private Ryans' * British Theatre Guide *'Completely gripping... a play about unsung heroes, responsibility, integrity and the nature of bravery' * Financial Times *'Tempestuous and highly charged... a thunderous piece of theatre' * The Stage *
£999.99
Nick Hern Books Jeeves & Wooster in 'Perfect Nonsense'
Book SynopsisAn inventive, fast-paced comedy featuring P.G. Wodehouse’s iconic double act. Winner of the 2014 Olivier Award for Best New Comedy. When a country house weekend takes a turn for the worse, Bertie Wooster is unwittingly called on to play matchmaker – reconciling the affections of his host’s drippy daughter Madeline Bassett with his newt-fancying acquaintance Gussie Fink-Nottle. If Bertie, ably assisted by the ever-dependable Jeeves, can’t pull off the wedding of the season he’ll be forced to abandon his cherished bachelor status and marry the ghastly girl himself! Based on P.G. Wodehouse’s delightfully bonkers stories, especially The Code of the Woosters, the Goodale Brothers’ dramatisation premiered at the Duke of York's Theatre, West End, in November 2013, prior to a UK tour. Written for a cast of three, who play multiple roles, this adaptation will suit any theatre company or drama group looking for a comic play to perform.Trade Review'Razor-sharp ingenuity... comedy at its purest' * Time Out *'Wodehouse himself would have loved this... captures the dotty, sunlit innocence of his work with panache' * Telegraph *'Smart and crafty... [will] entertain those who have never been exposed to Wodehouse, and devotees will lap it up' * Evening Standard *'Inventive ...shimmers with just the right dose of silliness and self-mockery' * Daily Mail *'Furiously fast and funny... clever and inventive' * Metro *'Joyous... works beautifully well... so true to the creator's madcap spirit that you can imagine him wishing he'd thought of doing it like this' * Daily Express *'A joyous farce... side-splitting... deftly crafted and imbued with Wodehouse's spirit... a riotous evening that's guaranteed to chase the blues away... glorious' * Broadway World *
£10.79
Nick Hern Books Little Revolution
Book SynopsisAn explosive verbatim play about the 2011 London Riots, by the author of the award-winning London Road. In the summer of 2011, London was burning. Alecky Blythe took her Dictaphone to the streets… From the helicopters circling overhead to the burnt-out buildings on the street, Little Revolution records the voices and stories of a community from when the riots happened up to their present-day aftermath. Little Revolution premiered at the Almeida Theatre, London, in August 2014.Trade Review'Absolutely compelling' * Telegraph *'Alecky Blythe's work is a gold thread running through the theatre of the past decade... [Little Revolution] is needling, comic and sceptical... terrific' * Observer *
£10.44
Nick Hern Books Wendy & Peter Pan
Book SynopsisElla Hickson's version of J.M. Barrie's much-loved story puts the character of Wendy firmly centre stage, in an adaptation that is refreshingly modern but never loses the charm of the original. Winter 1908. Snow is falling across London. Wendy Darling and her brothers sleep peacefully in their bedroom, as their parents bicker downstairs. In a sudden flurry of snow their window blows open, and into their lives tumbles a mischievous boy called Peter, followed by a fractious fairy called Tink. With the aid of a little fairy dust, Wendy agrees to fly with Peter to Neverland, seeing not only the promise of an awfully big adventure, but also the chance to rediscover the key to her parents' lost happiness. Once there, she will give the Lost Boys a run for their money, defeat Captain Hook and his pirate crew, and ultimately, learn what it means to grow up. Commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company, Ella Hickson's Wendy & Peter Pan premiered at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, in December 2013, and was revived by the RSC in 2015. It was staged at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, in an international co-production between Bunkamura in Tokyo and Leeds Playhouse in the UK. The play will suit any theatre company or youth group looking to stage a classic tale, full of magic, adventure and strong female roles.Trade Review'Sensitive, funny and intelligent... I laughed, I gasped, I cried - it is wonderful to be transported so completely by a piece of theatre' * WhatsOnStage *'Delightful... a warm, sensitive and humorous reboot' * Evening Standard *'Resoundingly successful... witty, pointed, adventuresome... Hickson isn't just subverting this story, she is strengthening it' * The Times *'A witty retelling of a classic that will surely make theatre lovers out of youngsters experiencing the art form for the first time' * Guardian *'In Hickson's clever version, Wendy, Tinkerbell and Tiger Lily get their kick-ass, girl-power moment. But her re-telling is also uncommonly thoughtful and nuanced... it seems set to become a modern classic' * Telegraph *
£10.44
Nick Hern Books Nell Gwynn (NHB Modern Plays)
Book SynopsisLondon, 1660. King Charles II has exploded onto the scene with a love of all things loud, extravagant and sexy. And at Drury Lane, a young Nell Gwynn is causing stirrings amongst the theatregoers. Nell Gwynn charts the rise of an unlikely heroine, from her roots in Coal Yard Alley to her success as Britain's most celebrated actress, and her hard-won place in the heart of the King. But at a time when women are second-class citizens, can her charm and spirit protect her from the dangers of the Court? Jessica Swale's exhilarating take on the heady world of Restoration theatre premiered at Shakespeare's Globe, London, in September 2015, before transferring to the West End in February 2016, starring Gemma Arterton.Trade Review'Bawdy and brilliant... a wonderful, warm-hearted and generous piece of theatrical history' The Stage; 'An out-and-out celebration of the fun of theatre… if you’re looking for laughs, and a romping brash show, this is great' The Arts Desk; 'Cannily mixes Carry On double-entendres with an explicitly feminist message… a love-letter to theatre itself and the cheerful chaos involved in putting on a play' Guardian; 'Superbly funny… a juicy, well-wrought thing of great fun, a wonderfully layered celebration of theatre, but most of all an apt homage to a woman incredibly ahead of her time' Time Out
£10.44
Nick Hern Books Blue Heart
Book SynopsisTwo exhilarating and teasingly entertaining one-act plays from one of the UK’s leading playwrights. Heart’s Desire sees a family awaiting their daughter’s return from Australia, though in a series of alternative scenarios, the play collapses as it keeps veering off in unexpected and ridiculous directions. Blue Kettle tells the story of conman Derek and the five women he misleads into believing he is their biological son. Try as he might, Derek’s plans are scuppered as the play is invaded by a virus. In Caryl Churchill’s ever-inventive style, the two plays in Blue Heart pull apart language and structure in a way that is theatrically remarkable and fast paced, in a stirring yet truthful exploration of family and relationships. Blue Heart was first performed at Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds, in August 1997 in a touring co-production by Out of Joint and the Royal Court Theatre. This edition was published alongside the first major revival of Blue Heart, nearly twenty years after its premiere, in a co-production by the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, and Tobacco Factory Theatres, Bristol, in 2016.Trade Review'A fiendishly clever and surreal play' Guardian * Guardian *'The play of the year' * Independent *'Substantial, provocative, immensely stylish works which create an unsettling mixture of wild laughter and profound unease... a major hit' * Telegraph *
£9.99
Nick Hern Books Lorca: Three Plays
Book SynopsisThree of Federico García Lorca's most famous plays in a single volume, translated from the Spanish and introduced by one of Scotland's finest playwrights, Jo Clifford. 'There's fire burning in my head. There's an ocean drowning my heart.' Lorca's passionate, lyrical tales of longing and revenge put the spotlight on the rural poor of 1930s Spain and are considered masterpieces of twentieth-century theatre. These plays exhibit Lorca's intense anger at the injustices of society, and his determination to create art that might remedy it. The collection contains Blood Wedding, Yerma and The House of Bernarda Alba, in sensitive and playable translations, and a full introduction to Lorca, his times and his work. The Nick Hern Books Drama Classic Collections series brings together the most popular plays from a single author or a particular period. They offer students, actors and theatregoers a series of uncluttered, accessible editions, accompanied by comprehensive introductions. Where the originals are in English, there is a glossary of unfamiliar words and phrases. Where the originals are in a foreign language, the translations aim to be both actable and accurate – and are made by translators whose work is regularly staged in the professional theatre.
£11.69
Nick Hern Books Boudica
Book SynopsisA brand-new ancient-history play in verse that tells the story of one of Britain's most iconic women: a queen, a warrior and a rebel. ‘I’d rather walk in blood than walk a slave For he your Emperor!’ AD 61, Britannia. On the furthest outreaches of the Roman Empire – at the very edge of the known world – rebellion is brewing. The King of the Iceni has died and his widow, Boudica, has tried to claim her rightful throne. For her insolence in defying Rome, the queen has been flogged, her daughters have been raped, and they have been banished from their homeland. But now, Queen Boudica has returned. And this time she has an army. She will have revenge. She will have blood. She will make Rome quake in fear. Boudica by Tristan Bernays premiered at Shakespeare’s Globe, London, in September 2017.Trade Review'An epic, blood-soaked spectacle… Bernays' writing is beautifully clear and disciplined… a thrilling, challenging and thoroughly disturbing examination of one of Britain's bloodiest – and feistiest – patriots' * WhatsOnStage *'Fast, foul and funny… Tristan Bernays writes with hints of the classics, yet it retains a sense of the modern. Bernays' words trip off the tongue, occasionally drifting into the poetic, and at other times into the coarse. Not only that but it's incredibly funny, with elements of Monty Python-esque humour running through' * Broadway World *'Audacious, inventive and vivid… a show for fans of Game of Thrones… refreshingly, Bernays has written a play in which women get to do the exciting stuff' * Evening Standard *'A huge amount of fun… a pacy, fun watch that'll thrill Game of Thrones fans' * Time Out *'Holds the stage with confidence… Bernays drives the story forward with great skill' * Guardian *'Tristan Bernays's new play offers a crackingly good central female role, which puts the first-century British queen right at the centre of the narrative… accomplished writing' * The Arts Desk *'A bloody, bawdy reimagining of the story of Boudica… Tristan Bernays's zesty play puts new flesh on the facts, but his main focus is firmly on Boudica's experience as a powerful woman in a man's world and the competing demands on her as a mother and a ruler... has a sprightly, muscular pace' * Telegraph *
£11.69
Nick Hern Books Jekyll & Hyde
Book SynopsisEveryone has another face they hide behind… A radical re-imagining by playwright Evan Placey of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic tale, where civilised society meets seedy Soho in a thrilling collision of Victorian England with the here and now. Written for the National Youth Theatre, and first performed by the company at the Ambassadors Theatre in the West End in 2017, Jekyll & Hyde offers a full range of parts for schools and youth-theatre groups looking for a contemporary reinvention of a macabre classic. Evan Placey’s other plays include Consensual, Pronoun, Girls Like That (Best Play for Young Audiences at the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain Awards), Mother of Him, Banana Boys and Holloway Jones.Trade Review'Incendiary... a furious, whip-smart and – that rare thing – genuinely dangerous theatrical riposte to the men who have had their hands on the levers of power for far too long... thrilling stuff' * Guardian *'Intense, exciting... a bold reimagining' * WhatsOnStage *'Ambitious, angry, and intriguing, Evan Placey's radical adaptation transforms the familiar story into a discussion of powerfully resonant contemporary issues' * The Stage *'A topical. intelligent, thoughtful, feminist take on Robert Louis Stevenson's novella... rollicking good theatre – frank, uncompromising, fresh and often quite confrontational… an ensemble piece in that it forms a fine show case for the talents of every cast member' * Sardines Magazine *'Daring and imaginative... a fine way of introducing a young audience to theatrical storytelling techniques with which they may be unfamiliar' * British Theatre Guide *
£10.44
Nick Hern Books ear for eye (NHB Modern Plays)
Book Synopsis'Marchin' days is over man.' Patience is running out, times have changed. And progress isn't enough. Black British. African American. Here. There. Now. Snapshots of lives, snapshots of experiences of protest; violence vs non-violence, direct action vs demonstrations, ear for eye follows characters navigating their way through society today. debbie tucker green's play ear for eye premiered in October 2018 at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs, in a production directed by the playwright. ear for eye was a finalist for the 2019 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. A filmed version of ear for eye, written and directed by debbie tucker green, was broadcast on BBC Two in October 2021. 'A furious dissection of racial injustice... overwhelming' - GuardianTrade Review'A furious dissection of racial injustice... overwhelming' * Guardian *'Piercing and flecked with a grim mischievous humour... debbie tucker green's stylised dialogue is punctuated with the rhythmic precision of a musical score... quietly devastating... an impassioned play about stalled progress' * Independent *'An intensely smart piece of theatrecraft. Its three components would make total sense in isolation; together they interact in a subtly devastating dance' * Time Out *'An amazingly ambitious epic... has a thrillingly unexpected theatre form and is written in green's distinctive style of reiterative and repetitive punchy dialogues, which here are both emotionally passionate and imaginatively modernistic... raises your political consciousness while expanding your sense of the beautiful' * The Arts Desk *'An insistent, unrelenting cry of protest... brilliantly written and darkly funny... this powerful, challenging drama is an urgent, impatient call for change' * BritishTheatre.com *'The thrill of seeing this play by debbie tucker green is partly generated by its passion and partly by its poetry. It is so original, ear and eye-catching... words fly like missiles, beautifully honed, finding their targets, creating a picture of a world where people of colour are constantly suppressed... excruciatingly funny but utterly devastating in its impact' * WhatsOnStage *'With ear for eye, debbie tucker green goes further than ever before in breaking down and reconstructing form, creating a complex work of economic eloquence and gestural clarity, uncompromisingly and brilliantly her own. It's tough, harrowing, and fiercely beautiful' * The Stage *
£12.59
Nick Hern Books CLASS
Book SynopsisBrian and Donna's son is nine years old and he's struggling. That's what his teacher says. Says he should see a psychologist. But Brian and Donna – recently separated – never liked school, never liked teachers. An explosive triple confrontation that is funny, heartbreaking and beautifully observed, Iseult Golden and David Horan's CLASS is an award-winning play about learning difficulties: in school, in life, wherever. After a sold-out run in the Dublin Theatre Festival 2017, the play transferred to the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, in January 2018 before playing in the Traverse Theatre as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2018. CLASS won an Edinburgh Fringe First Award and was named Best Theatre Script at the 2018 ZeBBie Awards awarded by the Writers Guild of Ireland.Trade Review'A passionate 21st-century tragedy… an utterly credible, humorous yet heartbroken snapshot of a western culture in which, for some men, issues of gender, class and power can now form an utterly toxic mix of rage, resentment and desperation' * Scotsman *'Intelligent and compelling… rivetingly escalates in tension, bringing resentments about educational authority figures, working-class alienation and gender differences to the fore… a valuable piece' * Telegraph *'Explores the uncertain territory where prejudice, damage and failed intentions collide' * Guardian *'A play that kicks against an exclusionary establishment in miniature: the school a microcosm of a middle-class order' * WhatsOnStage *'Adeptly demonstrates the stakes that both teachers and parents can have in a child’s well-being and the stresses that teachers are placed under' * The Stage *'An inspired look at society through the prism of a parent-teacher meeting' * Sunday Times Ireland *
£9.99
