Poetry Books

A haiku, an ode, a sonnet, a limerick, an elegy ... more poetry,please.

19125 products


  • What Country, Friends, Is This?: Directing

    Nick Hern Books What Country, Friends, Is This?: Directing

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisA highly practical, comprehensive guide to exploring Shakespeare with young people – ideal for directors, youth theatre leaders, workshop facilitators and teachers. Experienced teacher, actor and director Max Hafler tackles the myths that Shakespeare's work is like a foreign country, not for the faint-hearted, or only for a privileged few. In this book, he shows how you can embrace the challenges of doing Shakespeare with young people, and make the plays accessible and exciting for all. Beginning with a series of workshops that introduce the skills and principles of voice and acting, he sets out, step by step, how to use devising, develop short scenes, explore soliloquies, and unlock the themes, characters, stories and language of the plays. The holistic approach includes dozens of exercises – many inspired by Michael Chekhov's innovative technique – which will help young actors explore their voice, imagination and body, and lead to performances that are richer, focused and more fulfilling. There is also useful advice on preparing for a production, editing and transposing the text, rehearsing scenes, and fostering an ensemble. Above all, this book will equip you to engage and empower young people, and to help them discover for themselves the joy of working with Shakespeare. Praise for Max Hafler's Teaching Voice: Workshops for Young Performers: ‘A useful book for teachers, youth theatre leaders, facilitators and indeed anyone who works with young people… plenty of exercises, warm-ups and advice about how to use the techniques in the rehearsal room’ The Stage ‘Through years of experience, Hafler has developed a great understanding of what can work with teenagers and shares it generously with those who work in the field’ Word Matters (Journal of the Society of Teachers of Speech and Drama) ‘It is clear that the original, imaginative and fun exercises that are found within this book have been thoughtfully put together by someone who has a wealth of experience in his field and that each session has been successfully tried and tested with his own students’ Drama Magazine ‘A must-own… full of exercises and advice to explore’ Teaching DramaTrade Review'There are some real nuggets of good practice here… the book is laid out clearly, making it easy to find ideas and techniques that are well explained… It is very clear that Max Hafler knows his stuff and he writes with a confidence that makes the reader feel that these ideas are worth trying' * Drama & Theatre Magazine *'This book makes you want to get up and do what it describes while you are reading it… it's suitable for session leaders who haven't tackled this kind of work before, but there is plenty of useful information and advice for more experienced teachers and directors as well… I will certainly be going back to it' * British Theatre Guide *'A very practical book which will be an inspiring influence on teachers of Shakespeare for young people' * Word Matters (Journal of the Society of Teachers of Speech and Drama) *

    1 in stock

    £13.49

  • Switzerland

    Nick Hern Books Switzerland

    3 in stock

    Book Synopsis1995, the Swiss Alps. Patricia Highsmith, the queen of the thriller, now ageing and ailing, hides away in her study, surrounded by her collection of books and antique weaponry, finding solace in her seclusion, her cats and her cigarettes. A polished young man turns up, sent by her New York publisher to persuade her to write one final instalment of her best-selling series featuring the master manipulator, Tom Ripley. But as day breaks over the mountains, it becomes clear that the charming stranger is set on a far more sinister mission. Joanna Murray-Smith's play Switzerland is a gripping psychological thriller, filled with razor-sharp dialogue. It was first performed at the Sydney Opera House in 2014. The play received its UK premiere at the Ustinov Studio, Theatre Royal Bath, in 2018, before transferring to the Ambassadors Theatre in London's West End.Trade Review'A riveting psychological two-hander weaved with a compelling black humour' * The Stage *'A smartly self-referential salute to Patricia Highsmith's riveting crime tales' * Guardian *'A gripping psychological thriller. Creeps up on you and then has you on the edge of your seat' * Sunday Telegraph *'Joanna Murray-Smith demonstrates a Stoppardian gift for pithily combining intelligence, wit and pathos' * Independent *

    3 in stock

    £11.39

  • A Hundred Words for Snow

    Nick Hern Books A Hundred Words for Snow

    2 in stock

    Book Synopsis‘It’s a bit weird to be sitting at the Arctic Circle chatting to a fit boy with your dad’s ashes in your backpack.’ Rory's dad was an explorer. Well, not literally. Literally, he was a geography teacher. But inside, she knows, he was Bear Grylls. And when he dies suddenly in an accident, Rory knows she needs to make one last expedition. With a plastic compass and Dad's ashes at her side, Rory sets off in the footsteps of all the dead beardy explorers before her, to get Dad to the North Pole. Before Mum finds out they've gone. Tatty Hennessy's play A Hundred Words for Snow is about being an explorer in a melting world. It's a coming-of-age story. With polar bears. The play won the Heretic Voices Monologue Competition and was first produced at the Arcola Theatre, London, in 2018. A new production was performed at the 2018 VAULT Festival, where it was the winner of a VAULT Origins Award for outstanding new work from the VAULT Festival. It then toured the UK, with a run at the Trafalgar Studios in London's West End in 2019. This edition also includes the diary of her research trip to the Arctic Circle, and the short play Distant Early Warning, set in 2053 in what was once Greenland.Trade Review'Inspired and fast-paced, filled with taut observations and brilliant humour… [has] creativity and joy running throughout' * LondonTheatre1 *'A real gem… warm, witty, and like its central character, heavily layered' * The Stage *'A blockbuster of how the very pointless nature of human endeavor is what makes us so brilliant' * Exeunt Magazine *'Extraordinary' * A Younger Theatre *

    2 in stock

    £10.44

  • Ghost Stories

    Nick Hern Books Ghost Stories

    2 in stock

    Book SynopsisProfessor of Parapsychology, Philip Goodman, is an arch-sceptic with a mission to debunk the paranormal, wherever it occurs. But when he embarks on an investigation of three apparent hauntings – as recounted by a night-watchman, a teenage boy, and a businessman awaiting his first child – Goodman finds himself at the outer limits of rationality, and fast running out of explanations. Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman's play Ghost Stories first started terrifying audiences at Liverpool Playhouse and the Lyric Hammersmith, London, in 2010, directed by its authors along with Sean Holmes – and has since become a worldwide cult phenomenon, with two West End transfers, productions in China, Australia, Canada and Europe, and an award-winning film adaptation. It was revived at the Lyric in 2019. This official tie-in edition features the complete script for the show, and an exclusive introduction by Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman, about the origins and development of the play.Trade Review'Brilliant and deeply unsettling' * Telegraph *'Genuine scary fun' * Sunday Times *'Brilliantly scary' * Daily Express *'I had to sleep with the lights on' * Metro *'An immaculately crafted evening of entertainment' * Time Out *

    2 in stock

    £10.44

  • Glass. Kill. Bluebeard. and Imp.

    Nick Hern Books Glass. Kill. Bluebeard. and Imp.

    1 in stock

    Book Synopsis'I can see her just. Most people can't see her at all.' A girl made of glass. Gods and murders. A serial killer's friends. And a secret in a bottle. Four stories by Caryl Churchill. Glass, Kill, Bluebeard, and Imp premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in September 2019.Trade Review'A thrilling reminder of why Caryl Churchill is our greatest living playwright... spans everything from poetry to surrealism to tell four tales that feel both urgent to our current moment and like timeless, amber-cast fairytales... this whirlwind ride through Churchill's relentless imagination is not to be missed' * Evening Standard *'In her captivating quartet of new works Churchill casts an immediate spell over her audience, catches everyone off-guard with laugh-out-loud humour, then silences the auditorium with shards of pained recognition... the sheer audacity of the plays is exhilaratingly fresh' * The Stage *'A fascinating four-part exploration into our appetite for blood-soaked myth... funny and macabre... endlessly intriguing' * Guardian *'Audacious, haunting and often horribly funny... as aesthetically pleasing as it is droll' * Independent *'A dazzling quartet of plays about the murderous power of stories... a remarkable work... a testament to a writer whose talent burns almost too bright to look at' * Time Out *'Funny and clever... words drop like stones on a pond, creating endless ripples... a magnificent, invigorating night at the theatre' * WhatsOnStage *

    1 in stock

    £9.49

  • Amsterdam

    Nick Hern Books Amsterdam

    2 in stock

    Book Synopsis‘Everyone knows, all of them… that when all’s said and done, she is no more than a fig leaf hiding the thing everyone else would be much happier never having to look at.’ An Israeli violinist. Living in her trendy canal-side Amsterdam apartment. Nine months pregnant. One day a mysterious unpaid gas bill from 1944 arrives. It awakens unsettling feelings of collective identity, foreignness and alienation. Stories of a devastating past are compellingly reconstructed to try and make sense of the present. First seen at the Haifa Theater, Israel, in 2018, Amsterdam is a strikingly original, audacious thriller by Maya Arad Yasur. It received its UK premiere, in this English translation by Eran Edry, at the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, in 2019, directed by Matthew Xia, in a co-production between the Orange Tree, Actors Touring Company and Theatre Royal Plymouth.Trade Review'A fascinating, multilayered play' * The Stage *'An intense, meta-theatrical play about collective guilt and invisible otherhood' * WhatsOnStage *

    2 in stock

    £10.44

  • Deirdre Kinahan: Shorts: Five Plays

    Nick Hern Books Deirdre Kinahan: Shorts: Five Plays

    1 in stock

    Book Synopsis'The short play – very traditional to Irish theatre – is a little jewel of a structure, a lightning flash on a different world, the illumination made all the more acute by brevity' Deirdre Kinahan Deirdre Kinahan is an award-winning playwright and member of Aosdána, Ireland's elected organisation of outstanding artists. This volume brings together five of her short plays, taken from the full span of her writing career, each of them shining a light into a forgotten corner of our humanity, giving voice to irrepressible characters that the world has done its best to overlook. In Bé Carna (Tall Tales, 1999), five women reflect on their lives as prostitutes on the streets of Dublin, a dark tale inspired by true-life stories, reverberating with humanity, warmth and comic humour. In Hue & Cry (Tall Tales/Bewley's Café Theatre, 2007), two Dublin cousins, Damian and Kevin, are reunited for a family funeral in a highly charged encounter full of disillusion, denial and dark laughter. In Bogboy (Tall Tales/Solstice Arts Centre, 2010), originally written as a radio play for RTÉ, two lost souls – a young heroin addict and a reclusive middle-aged farmer – discover a budding friendship in the bogs of Meath, until a terrible secret comes to light. Wild Notes (Solas Nua, Washington D.C., 2018) explores the impact of colonialism through a meeting between Frederick Douglass, the escaped slave and abolitionist who visited Ireland in the 1840s, and a young Irishwoman hoping to emigrate to the country he's running from. An Old Song, Half Forgotten (Abbey Theatre, 2023) opens a window into the life and soul of an older actor who is living in care with Alzheimer's disease, rebuilding a man just as he begins to crack and fade.

    1 in stock

    £15.29

  • Glee & Me

    Nick Hern Books Glee & Me

    2 in stock

    Book Synopsis'A vinaigrette of despair poured over a salad of joy.' Lola is sixteen years old, sharp-witted and has her whole life ahead of her – until she's diagnosed with a malignant brain tumour. Now her brilliant mind is rapidly turning into useless mush. So she's promised herself two things before she dies: 1. She's going to get All The Sex and 2. She'll definitively discover the Meaning of Life. Stuart Slade's play Glee & Me is an unexpectedly optimistic portrayal of love and the extraordinary resilience of the human spirit. It won the Judges Award in the 2019 Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting, and was first performed at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, in September 2021.Trade Review'A joyous play that asks how life is best lived when death's inevitability is impossible to ignore' * The Times *'Ferocious black humour' * Whatsonstage *'A play about life and how we live it, not about death in all its inevitability... a witty and warm-hearted celebration' * Guardian *'Frank, fresh, and blessedly unmawkish... remarkably believable – and extremely funny' * Independent *'Fiercely funny... heart-wrenching but ultimately comforting' * The Stage *

    2 in stock

    £11.39

  • SAUCE and All honey: Two Plays

    Nick Hern Books SAUCE and All honey: Two Plays

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisTwo sweet and saucy comedies from an award-winning Irish playwright. In SAUCE, Mella is a compulsive liar, Maura is a kleptomaniac – and neither has any friends. Recently out of controlling relationships, they are thrust into uneasy freedom. Can they overcome their flaws together to avoid dying alone? Or will their compulsions engulf them in the end? A play about death and rebirth, Ciara Elizabeth Smyth's SAUCE was first staged at Bewley's Café Theatre, Dublin, in 2019 as part of Dublin Fringe Festival, and revived there in 2022. In All honey, Ru and Luke are throwing a house-warming party. But their guests are more interested in whispering in the box room than joining the festivities. Explosive characters and unfolding secrets mean the hosts will have to clean up more than red-wine stains and glitter. Ciara Elizabeth Smyth's debut play, All honey is about sex, secrets and suspicion. It premiered at the New Theatre in 2017 as part of Dublin Fringe Festival, winning the 2017 Fishamble New Writing Award. It was revived at Bewley's in 2018 and Project Arts Centre in 2020.Trade Review'A seriously impressive debut... Fast, furious and fiercely funny, All honey is a laugh-out-loud joy' * The Arts Review *'SAUCE will break your heart with a gorgeous vulnerability, while having you smirking at the cleverness of it all and laughing out loud' * The Arts Review *'[SAUCE is] a really funny show... delights in innuendo and provokes hysterics' * Irish Times *

    1 in stock

    £11.69

  • A Wee Book of Iona Poems

    Wild Goose Publications A Wee Book of Iona Poems

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisThese haiku-like poems arise out of Kenneth Steven's perception of the Iona landscape. They have the sense of wonder, seeing, and being in the moment that many of us experience when spending time on this jewel-like island in a turquoise sea.

    1 in stock

    £8.92

  • Shakespeare for Every Night of the Year

    Batsford Ltd Shakespeare for Every Night of the Year

    1 in stock

    Book Synopsis Immerse yourself in the sublime words of the Bard with this sumptuous anthology of Shakespeare, with one entry for every night of the year. Chosen especially by a Shakespeare fanatic to reflect the changing seasons and daily events, the entries in this glorious book include: Romeo and Juliet on Valentine''s Day. A Midsummer Night''s Dream in Midsummer. The witches of Macbeth around their cauldron on Halloween. Also featured is one of Shakespeare''s only two mentions of football for the anniversary of the first FA cup final. Beautifully illustrated with favourite scenes from Shakespeare''s best-loved plays, this magnificent volume is a fun introduction to the well-known work and lesser known plays and poetry and is designed to be accessible to both adults and curious children. Keep this book by your bedside and luxuriate in the rich language of the greatest writer the world has ever known, for entertainment, r

    1 in stock

    £21.25

  • Selected Poems

    Bloodaxe Books Ltd Selected Poems

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis comprehensive edition of Russia's greatest modern poet, Anna Akhmatova (1899-1966), includes the complete texts of her major works Requiem, commemorating all of Stalin's victims, and Poem Without a Hero. Akhmatova published her first book of poems in 1912, and in the same year founded the Acmeist movement with her husband, the poet Gumilev. Her intense, highly personal love lyrics were later attacked as anti-revolutionary, and in 1925 her poetry was banned. Gumilev was shot in 1921 for alleged involvement in an anti-Bolshevik plot, and in the years of terror which followed under Stalin, Akhmatova was persecuted for her work along with fellow poets Mandelstam, who died in a camp, and Tsvetaeva, who committed suicide. She was able to publish some work during the war, but in 1946 she again came under attack, this time from Zhdanov, who denounced her with Pasternak and others for trying to ‘poison the minds’ of Soviet youth. These were attacks on her published work. What she was writing – but could not publish – was far more dangerous. For she had entered her years of silence. As she fought for her son’s release from prison, she was writing her greatest poetry: the cycle Requiem, which commemorated all of Stalin’s victims, and Poem without a hero, which she began in 1940 and worked on for over 20 years. All she wrote she committed to memory. Several trusted friends also memorised her poems, among them Mandelstam’s widow Nadezhda. She wrote nothing down, and so survived, the people’s conscience, the one who kept 'the great Russian word' alive.Trade ReviewMcKane's Akhmatova versions are unparalleled, and a great advance on his admittedly brilliant early work on that wonderful poet. They have a restrained brilliance and an extraordinary personal power. -- Peter Levi

    1 in stock

    £17.00

  • Zoom!

    Bloodaxe Books Ltd Zoom!

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisZoom! is the book which launched Simon Armitage's meteoric rise to poetic stardom. It was shortlisted for the Whitbread Poetry Award in 1989 and was a Poetry Book Society Choice. The e-book edition of Zoom! incorporates audio files for 18 of the poems using recordings Simon Armitage made for Peter Sansom in Huddersfield in 1989. So the voice you hear is that of Simon Armitage, then aged 26, when he was still working as a probation officer and had just published his first book of poems.Trade ReviewYou couldn't mistake Simon Armitage for any other poet. He has found his voice early, and it really is his own voice – his language and rhythms drawn from the Pennine village where he lives: robust, no-nonsense and (above all) honest. -- Peter SansomAstonishingly good for such a young writer… poems with an energy which comes directly from life now and the living language. -- Carol Ann Duffy * Guardian *Armitage creates a muscular but elegant language of his own out of slangy, youthful, up-to-the-minute jargon and the vernacular of his native northern England. He combines this with an easily worn erudition, plenty of nous and the benefit of unblinkered experience...to produce poems of moving originality. -- Peter Reading * Sunday Times *

    1 in stock

    £10.44

  • The Iron-Blue Vault: Selected Poems

    Bloodaxe Books Ltd The Iron-Blue Vault: Selected Poems

    2 in stock

    Book SynopsisAttila József is Hungary’s greatest modern poet. His extraordinary poetry is exhilarating in its power, transcending the scars of a difficult life. Born into poverty in 1905, deserted by his father and put out to fostering, József had a brutalised childhood, and tried to poison himself at the age of nine. Mostly self-educated, he was prosecuted at 18 for blasphemy in a poem, and expelled from university a year later for With a Pure Heart, a now celebrated poem which spoke for a whole generation. He is a genuine revolutionary poet, neither simple-minded nor difficult, though his thought and imagery are complex. A deeply divided man, his poetry has a robust physicality as well as a jaunty and heroic intelligence – Marxist in its dedication but fuelled in its audacity by both Freud and Surrealism. Diagnosed as schizophrenic, he underwent psychoanalysis, and yet continued to write magnificent poetry which – although darker – drew upon highly exacting and intricate structures and metres, and upon an eclectic but balanced framework of ideas. By 1937 he was almost destitute, financially and emotionally, and in deteriorating mental health. But he was still writing some of his most compelling work, compulsive guilt-ridden poetry whose glittering lyricism is at once personal and mythic, even while receiving shock treatments and heavy medication in a sanatorium. Finally, at the age of 32, he clambered onto a railway track, and a train broke his neck and cut off his right arm.Trade ReviewEvery part of his nature seems to cooperate in each poem. But the truly arresting thing is the last-ditch urgency under which this cooperation happens. It is both genuinely desperate and irresistibly appealing…Bleak options, eternal perspectives, cleanly confronted. But though the great thing, the infinite thing, is the insatiable, unconsolable howl of his exposure to what had happened and continued to happen, it is weirdly counterpointed by a strange elation, a savage sort of elation or even joy. -- Ted Hughes

    2 in stock

    £10.80

  • The Bloodaxe Book of Modern Welsh Poetry

    Bloodaxe Books Ltd The Bloodaxe Book of Modern Welsh Poetry

    4 in stock

    Book SynopsisWelsh is the oldest surviving Celtic language, and the most flourishing. For around fifteen centuries Welsh poets have expressed an intense awareness of what it is like to be human in this part of the world in poems of extraordinary range and depth. And despite the global tendency towards homogenisation, Welsh poets have fought back, drawing inspiration from both the traditional and the contemporary to forge a new and rainbow-like modernism. This wide-ranging anthology of 20th-century Welsh-language poetry in English translation – by far the most comprehensive of its kind – will be a revelation for most readers. It will dispel the romantic images of Welsh poets as bards or druids and blow away any preconceived mists of Celtic twilight. This poetry is full of vitality, combining old craftsmanship and daring innovation, humour and angst, the oral and the literary. The selection brings together poets of every hue: from magisterial figures like T Gwynn Jones, R Williams Parry and Saunders Lewis to folk poets such as Alun Cilie and Dic Jones; from cerebral poets Pennar Davies and Bobi Jones to popular entertainers Geraint Løvgreen and Ifor ap Glyn. There are Chaplinesque poets, rebellious and subversive ones, lyrical voices and storytellers. The variety is enormous: from Welsh performance poetry to song lyrics; from the wry social comment of Grahame Davies to the contemporary parables of Gwyneth Lewis, who writes different kinds of poems in Welsh and English. This exuberant chorus of voices from the margins of Europe proves that poetry in this minority language is far from stagnant. Poetry Book Society Recommended Translation.

    4 in stock

    £17.06

  • The Big Bumper Book of Troy

    Bloodaxe Books Ltd The Big Bumper Book of Troy

    2 in stock

    The northern word for hometown, ‘toon’, flickers in meaning between ‘tune’ and ‘cartoon’. In Bill Herbert’s big bumper book, the title toon is Troy: the first lost home. Exiled to a lighthouse on the River Tyne, the wily Scots maestro has written a book in love with lost and difficult things. Sometimes reflective, sometimes subversively mischievous, he registers or rails against displacement and resettlement, lamenting the passing of relatives, cities, furniture, and the odd lemur. Plugged in to the poetry zeitgeist as ever, Herbert has revived a medieval publishing craze: the Troybook. Painstaking excavation of old comics establishes that the original site of Troytoon is Dundee. Or Madrid. Or possibly St Petersburg. The search for traces of Troy leads to Donegal, Crete, and, at the heart of his grand tour, a vivid verse journal set in post-perestroika Moscow. Dust off your highest brow and fasten your seatbelt, we’re flying Economy to Byzantium. The Big Bumper Book of Troy is driven by sudden shifts of register – English to Scots, free verse to antique stanza, page to performance, narrative to lyric. Everything has become a dialect, yet – cheekily borrowing the Russian composer Schnittke’s term – Herbert aims at a disrespectful polystylist unity. It is his most unorthodox rebellion yet against the dictatorship of the slim volume. A riot of colourful humour, a revolution in poetic taste.

    2 in stock

    £11.04

  • Do Not Go Gentle

    Bloodaxe Books Ltd Do Not Go Gentle

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis wide-ranging selection combines popular choices of traditional poems read at funerals with powerful poems by contemporary writers more tuned to our present age of doubt and disbelief. There are poems here for churchgoers and believers, including classic verses of grief and consolation by John Donne, Christina Rossetti, Emily Bronte and Emily Dickinson, the anonymous Do not stand at my grave and weep, and the poems read at Princess Diana's funeral. But there are also poems for people of all faiths and religions, for agnostics and atheists, and most importantly for those who aren’t sure what they believe, whose grief over loss is the more intense for not knowing what happens to the soul after death. Grief isn’t denied but experienced and made more bearable by being put into memorable words. Searing poems of lament are followed by moving elegies celebrating the lives of those we will always love. Whether and how the spirit survives is then explored in an extraordinary gathering of poems by writers as different and diverse as the Persian mystic Rumi, Zen Buddhist composers of Japanese haiku, and American poets Mary Oliver and Jane Kenyon. Buttressed against their assertions of faith in an afterlife are modern sceptics, from Auden and Larkin to William Carlos Williams and C.K. Williams, whose wrestling with the meaning of death helps us make sense of no sense, mirroring our own anxieties and difficulties. But however various and contradictory these poems, their message chimes with Larkin’s famous words, proving 'Our almost-instinct almost true:/ What will survive of us is love.' Unlike other poetry anthologies of loss, mourning and remembrance, Do Not Go Gentle offers a selection of poems specifically for reading at funerals and memorial services. It can also be used for reading aloud to friends and family, or for reading while numbed and bewildered – all times when the right poem can help us share and bear the burden of immediate grief.

    1 in stock

    £10.80

  • Modern Women Poets

    Bloodaxe Books Ltd Modern Women Poets

    1 in stock

    Book Synopsis"Modern Women Poets" is the companion anthology to Deryn Rees-Jones's pioneering critical study, "Consorting with Angels: Essays on Modern Women Poets". While its selections illuminate and illustrate her essays, Deryn Rees-Jones's superb anthology works in its own right as the best possible introduction to a whole century of poetry by women. The anthology draws together the work of women poets from Britain, Ireland and America as one version of a history of women's poetic writing, while not isolating women's writing from its intersection with the work of male contemporaries. Tracing an arc from Charlotte Mew to Stevie Smith, from Sylvia Plath to the writing emerging from the Women's Movement, and to the more recent work of Medbh McGuckian, Jo Shapcott and Carol Ann Duffy, the anthology draws together the work of women poets from Britain, Ireland and America as one version of a history of women's poetic writing. It shows important connections between the work of women poets and shows how - throughout past 100 years - they have developed strategies for engaging with a male-dominated tradition. "Modern Women Poets" allows the reader to trace women's negotiations with one another's work, as well as to reflect more generally on the politics of women's engagement with history, nature, politics, motherhood, science, religion, the body, sexuality, identity, death, love, and poetry itself.Trade ReviewA surprising and substantial anthology. -- Faith Lawrence * The Poetry House Magazine *An excellent, comprehensive survey…the headnotes to each poet are interesting and informative. -- Michael Glover * Independent *She makes her subject matter. It is impossible to read her and remain disengaged, and this is an important achievement. -- Jane Griffiths * Times Literary Supplement *

    1 in stock

    £17.00

  • Stranger to Nothing

    Bloodaxe Books Ltd Stranger to Nothing

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisPhilip Levine was the authentic voice of America's urban poor. Born in 1928, the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants, he spent his early years doing a succession of heavy labouring jobs. Trying to write poetry 'for people for whom there is no poetry', he chronicled the lives of the people he grew up with and worked with in Detroit: 'Their presence seemed utterly lacking in the poetry I inherited at age 20, so I've spent the last 40-some years trying to add to our poetry what wasn't there.' Much of his poetry addresses the joys and sufferings of industrial life, with radiant feeling, as well as painful irony: 'It took me a long time to be able to write about it without snarling or snapping. I had to temper the violence I felt toward those who maimed and cheated me with a tenderness toward those who had touched and blessed me.' Always a poet of memory and invention, Philip Levine has continually written poems which search for universal truths. His plain-speaking poetry is a testament to the durability of love, the strength of the human spirit and the persistence of life in the face of death. Poetry Book Society Special Commendation.Trade ReviewLevine's poetic vision, nearly religious, transcends class, transcends natural boundaries, and transcends time... Masterly... -- Peter Davison * Atlantic Monthly *The poet that continues to have the greatest impact for me is Philip Levine, and this book [Stranger to Nothing] serves as a great introduction. The subject matter he covers, the directness and generosity of his tone... all combine to astonishing worldly-wise poems that I couldn't imagine being without. -- David Tait * The North, Top 30 Outstanding Books from the Last 30 Years *What I particularly admire about Mr Levine’s work is its great emotional riskiness, its large, deeply felt commitments… In a reactionary and forgetful time these radiantly human and memorialising poems can help us understand our lives -- Edward Hirsch * New York Times Book Review *

    1 in stock

    £10.80

  • The Farewell Glacier

    Bloodaxe Books Ltd The Farewell Glacier

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe poems in The Farewell Glacier grew out of a journey to the High Arctic. In late 2010 Nick Drake sailed around Svalbad, an archipelago of islands 500 miles north of Norway, with people from Cape Farewell, the arts climate change organisation. It was the end of the Arctic summer. The sun took eight hours to set. When the sky briefly darkened, the Great Bear turned about their heads as it had for Pythias the Greek, the first European known to have explored this far north. Sailing as close as possible to the vast glaciers that dominate the islands, they saw polar bear prints on pieces of pack ice the size of trucks. And they tried to understand the effects of climate change on the ecosystem of this most crucial and magnificent part of the world. Nick Drake's new collection gathers together voices from across the Arctic past - explorers, whalers, mapmakers, scientists, financiers, the famous and the forgotten - as well as attempting to give voice to the confronting mysteries of the high Arctic: the animal spirits, the shape-shifters and the powers of ice and tundra. It looks into the future, to the year 2100, when this glorious winter Eden will have vanished forever. Many of the poems from The Farewell Glacier are included in ground-breaking High Arctic exhibition, installed at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich from July 2011 to January 2012, which received substantial national publicity, including a feature on BBC Radio 4's Front Row and national press reviews.Trade ReviewThe Farewell Glacier makes your spine shiver... The subject of climate change might not grab your attention, but with its footprints on the polar highs and two spoons of iceberg The Farewell Glacier will melt the hardest heart. * Wales Arts Review *A highly distinctive volume, The Farewell Glacier is a poetic exploration of European voyages to the Arctic, weaving together historical expeditions with voices Western, indigenous and animal, and Drake’s own experiences in the far North, territory where ‘the light suffuses everything.’ Drake tackles big questions – when does exploration become exploitation? What of global warming? As with Alice Oswald’s Dart, this volume is a serious re-thinking of what the long poem can do in the 21st Century. * Dulwich Books Reviews *

    1 in stock

    £9.45

  • Selected Poems

    Bloodaxe Books Ltd Selected Poems

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe poetry of Muriel Rukeyser (1913-80) confronts the turbulent currents of modern history as it explores with depth and honesty the realms of politics, sexuality, mythic imagination, technological change and family life. Rukeyser was a social activist of unwavering commitment, a tireless experimenter who opened fresh forms and fresh subject-matter in modern American poetry, and a writer who was constantly testing her own limits in a life's work of extraordinary scope. She held a visionary belief in the human capacity to create social change through language, and earned an international reputation as a powerful voice against enforced silences of all kind, against the violence of war, poverty and racism. Edited and introduced by Adrienne Rich, this new selection provides an indispensable introduction to the adventurous and prolific work of one of the most significant and influential American poets of the 20th century.Trade Review'She refused to compartmentalise herself or her work, claiming her right to intellect and sexuality, poetry and science, Marxism and myth, activism and motherhood, theory and vision - She was one of the great integrators, seeing the fragmentary world of modernity not as irretrievably broken, but in need of societal and emotional repair - the range and daring of her work, its generosity of vision, its level of energy are unequalled among twentieth-century American poets. Her poems can be panoramic (yet vividly concrete), intimate, epigrammatic, meditative, sensual, mordantly witty, visionary' - Adrienne Rich. 'One of the most important poets of our time - Her originality, her genius, her courage illuminate our century' - Sharon Olds. 'She was the first poet that I knew personally. I knew her when I was still an undergraduate. She was a very amazing human being and any traces of honesty in my life come from having seen how beautifully honest she was in administering her life and her poetry without any separation - you couldn't get a knife between the two things with her. The real influence was her human model of what a poet could be' - William Meredith, Paris Review. 'Muriel Rukeyser loved poetry more than anyone I've ever known. She also believed it could change us, move the world' - Alice Walker. 'Muriel, mother of everyone' - Anne Sexton.

    1 in stock

    £10.80

  • Authentic Movement: Essays by Mary Starks

    Jessica Kingsley Publishers Authentic Movement: Essays by Mary Starks

    5 in stock

    Book SynopsisPatrizia Pallaro's second volume of essays on Authentic Movement, eight years after her first, is a tour de force. It is indeed "an extraordinary array of papers", as Pallaro puts it, and an immensely rich, moving and highly readable sweep through the landscapes of Authentic Movement, "this form of creative expression, meditative discipline and/or psychotherapeutic endeavour". You don't need to practice Authentic Movement to get a lot out of this book, but it certainly helps! I defy anyone to read the first two sections and not be curious to have their own experience.'- Sesame Institute'Authentic Movement can be seen as a means by which analysts can become more sensitive to unconscious, especially pre-verbal aspects of themselves and their patients.'- Body Psychotherapy Journal Newsletter'This book is a collection of articles, some of which are interviews, brought together for the first time. It is very valuable to have them all together in one place...It is a wonderful collection of articles on topics you have always wanted to read, such as the role of transference in dance therapy or Jung and dance therapy. The book also includes scripts for exercises.'- SomaticsAuthentic Movement, an exploration of the unconscious through movement, was largely defined by the work of Mary Starks Whitehouse, Janet Adler and Joan Chodorow. The basic concepts of Authentic Movement are expressed for the first time in one volume through interviews and conversations with these important figures, and their key papers. They emphasize the importance of movement as a means of communication, particularly unconscious or 'authentic' movement, emerging when the individual has a deep, self-sensing awareness - an attitude of 'inner listening'. Such movement can trigger powerful images, feelings and kinesthetic sensations arising from the depths of our stored childhood memories or connecting our inner selves to the transcendent.In exploring Authentic Movement these questions are asked:- How does authentic movement differ from other forms of dance and movement therapy?- How may 'authentic' movement be experienced?Trade ReviewI am certain that anyone who has written extensively on the practice of Authentic Movement will share in my deep expression of appreciation toward Patrizia Pallaro for this exemplary compilation of papers. To date, this is the most complete compliation of the three most influential pioneers of what today has become known throughout the world as Authentic Movement. Each author's unique style of writing continually reminds the reader of the value, meaning, and purpose of this profound and often misunderstood practice that asks its participants to delve into the realms of the unconscious rarely explored within a western cultural context. -- American Journal of Dance TherapyTable of ContentsIntroduction, Patrizia Pallaro. Part I: Mary Starks Whitehouse. 1. An Approach to the Center: An Interview with Mary Whitehouse, Gilda Frantz. 2. Conversation with Mary Whitehouse. Frieda Sherman. 3. Creative Expression in Physical Movement is Language without Words. Mary Starks Whitehouse. 4. The Tao of the Body. Mary Starks Whitehouse. 5. Physical Movement and Personality. Mary Starks Whitehouse. 6. Reflections on a Metamorphosis. Mary Starks Whitehouse. 7. The Transference and Dance Therapy. Mary Starks Whitehouse. 8. C.G.Jung and Dance Therapy: Two Major Principles. Mary Starks Whitehouse. Part II: Janet Adler. 9. An Interview with Janet Adler. Neala Haze and Tina Stromsted. 10. Integrity of Body and Psyche: Some Notes on Work in Progress. Janet Adler. 11. Authentic Movement and Sexuality in the Therapeutic Experience. Janet Adler. 12.Who is the Witness? A Description of Authentic Movement. Janet Adler. 13. Body and Soul. Janet Adler. 14. The Collective Body. Janet Adler. Part III: Joan Chodorow. 15. An Interview with Joan Chodorow. Nancy Zenoff. 16. Philosophy and Methods of Individual Work. Joan Chodorow. 17. Dance Therapy and the Transcendent Function. Joan Chodorow. 18. Dance/Movement and Body Experience in Analysis. Joan Chodorow. 19. To Move and be Moved. Joan Chodorow. 20. The Body as Symbol: Dance/Movement in Analysis. Joan Chodorow. 21. Active Imagination. Joan Chodorow. Index.

    5 in stock

    £31.34

  • Volpone

    Nick Hern Books Volpone

    2 in stock

    Book SynopsisDrama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little Price Ben Jonson's comedy, one of the finest of the Jacobean era. Volpone is a Venetian aristocrat, a loveable rogue who enjoys the cunning pursuit of wealth more than money itself. Pretending to be mortally ill, he watches as his greedy neighbours swarm around him with expensive gifts in the hope of inheriting his fortune. Volpone was premiered by the King's Men at the Globe Theatre, London, in 1606. This edition of Volpone, in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series, is edited by R.B.Parker, and introduced by Colin Counsell.

    2 in stock

    £6.23

  • Disco Pigs & Sucking Dublin

    Nick Hern Books Disco Pigs & Sucking Dublin

    Book SynopsisDisco Pigs is the award-winning play about two warped teenagers that confirmed Enda Walsh's place in the forefront of young Irish dramatists and was filmed in 2001 with Cillian Murphy and Elaine Cassidy. Pig and Runt are two 17-year-olds who share everything: birthday, language, worldview - and that moment when pop songs and life-changing orgasms flash by and last forever. Disco Pigs was first performed by Corcadorca Theatre Company at the Triskel Arts Centre, Cork, in September 1996, and subsequently at the 1996 Dublin Theatre Festival. It received its UK premiere at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, in August 1997, before transferring to the Bush Theatre, London, in September 1997, and then on international tour. It won the Stewart Parker Prize for the best Irish debut play and the George Devine Award in 1997. Also included in this volume is Sucking Dublin, a fierce and uncompromising short play about a group of five individuals tormented by a rape in a claustrophobic, drug-infested Dublin. Sucking Dublin was first performed by the Outreach Department of the Abbey Theatre at Basin Lane Youth Reach Centre in Dublin in 1997. It also played at the Samuel Beckett Theatre in Trinity College, Dublin, from 4 November 1997.Trade Review'A small-scale modern classic' * Time Out on Disco Pigs *

    £10.44

  • A Number (NHB Modern Plays)

    Nick Hern Books A Number (NHB Modern Plays)

    Book SynopsisA fascinating meditation on human cloning, personal identity and the conflicting claims of nature and nurture. Bernard thought he was an only child. One day he learns the shocking truth: he is just one of a number of clones. Together, he and his father confront epic questions of identity, intimacy and belonging. Caryl Churchill's play A Number pushes the boundaries of science and ethics with an astonishing twist on the dynamics of the father/son relationship. It was originally produced at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2002, winning the Evening Standard Award for Best Play. Set Text: A Number is a set text for AS/A-Level Drama (WJEC) A Number is also available in the volume Caryl Churchill Plays: Four.Trade Review'A Number confirms Churchill's status as the first dramatist of the 21st century. On the face of it, it is about human cloning... Like all Churchill's best plays, A Number deals with both the essentials and the extremities of human experience... The questions this brilliant, harrowing play asks are almost unanswerable, which is why they must be asked' Sunday Times 'Caryl Churchill's magnificent new play only lasts an hour but contains more drama , and more ideas, than most writers manage in a dozen full-length works' Daily Telegraph 'Caryl Churchill never stands still. After the dystopian nightmare of Far Away, she now comes up with a challenging new form of moral inquiry. And the key question she ask in this play is from what the essential core of self derives: from nature or nurture, genetic inheritance or environmental circumstance?' Guardian

    £10.44

  • Poems

    Everyman Poems

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisColeridge is the most complex and brilliant, yet the most elusive and intense of the great Romantic writers. This selection of verse and prose displays the extraordinary scope of his mind, the power of his imagination and the virtuosity of his literary gifts. It also reveals that behind the glittering surface of familiar masterpieces – The Ancient Mariner, Kubla Khan, Christabel, the Biographia – there is a great but unknown poet still waiting to be discovered.

    1 in stock

    £11.69

  • Histories Volume 1

    Everyman Histories Volume 1

    2 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe Everyman Complete Shakespeare will publish the History plays in two volumes. In volume I are contained Shakespeare's first five history plays: HENRY VI parts I, II and II; RICHARD III and KING JOHN. The text of the plays is accompainied by extensive notes, author chronology, bibliography and a detailed introduction to each play and to Shakespeare's history plays in general by Tony Tanner.

    2 in stock

    £16.52

  • Shelley Poems

    Everyman Shelley Poems

    Out of stock

    Book SynopsisAn exciting addition to Everyman's Library: a new series of small, handsome hardcover volumes devoted to the world's classic poets.

    Out of stock

    £11.40

  • Milton Poems

    Everyman Milton Poems

    2 in stock

    Book SynopsisJohn Milton (1608-74) was celebrated in his time as a public servant of the Cromwellian regime and as the author of brilliant polemical pamphlets about education religion and freedom of speech, but his posthumous reputation rests principally on his work as a poet, noteably in PARADISE LOST. This poem, written after the poet was driven out of public life by the Restoration, and begun when he was already blind, is a worthy successor to the epics of Homer and Virgil. In majestic blank verse it describes Lucifer's fall from heaven, the creation of mankind, Eve's temptation, and the expulsion of Adam and Eve from paradise. After the Bible, this is perhaps the greatest masterpiece of Christian literature. The present volume contains extensive selections from PARADISE LOST, chosen to illustrate its author's genius for high drama, vivid description and savage irony. In addition, there are substantial extracts from COMUS and SAMSON AGONISTES, and many of Milton's sonnets and shorter poems, including the famous LYCIDAS.

    2 in stock

    £9.49

  • Pushkin Eugene Onegin And Other Poems

    Everyman Pushkin Eugene Onegin And Other Poems

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisPushkin was the first Russian writer of European stature, and he is among the very few artists - such as Homer and Shakespeare - to have shaped the consciousness and history of an entire nation and its language, thereby affecting the world at large. Eugene Onegin is not merely the greatest poem in the Russian language by its most influential poet: it is a global culture, social and political icon of the highest order. The historical power of this work - a novel in verse - is made all the more extraordinary by the simplicity of its subject. Eugene Onegin is a story of disappointed love. Tatyana falls for the handsome Eugene to whom she daringly makes advances. He cooly rejects her, then flirts with her sister, Olga. When challenged by Olga's fiance, Lensky kills him in a duel, seemingly indifferrent to the grief he causes. (Ironically, Puskhin himself was to be killed in similar circumstances in 1937, some seven years after he completed the work). Onegin leaves the district. When he returns four years later, Tatyana has married another man and it is her turn to reject his advances. But it turns out that Onegin's hauteur is affected: he has always loved her passionately. She loves him too and both reflect painfully on what might have been.

    1 in stock

    £10.44

  • Wakefulness

    Carcanet Press Ltd Wakefulness

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisPassions, leaves, loves, flutes, insects, paintings, apologies, and partings, all feature in this collection of poetry by Pulitzer Prize-winning author, John Ashbery.

    1 in stock

    £11.69

  • Book of Repulsive Women

    Carcanet Press Ltd Book of Repulsive Women

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisDjuna Barnes (1892-1982) once described herself as the most famous unknown writer, and although her novel "Nightwood" is celebrated, her poetry has been a well-kept secret. This selection contains work written between 1914 and the 1970s. Many of the poems in "The Book of Repulsive Women" first appeared in pamphlets and literary journals in New York and Paris. Published together for the first time, they throw new light on Barnes' development as a writer. The book reveals her as a poet of unique power, at once compelling and disorientating. Marianne Moore observed, "reading Djuna Barnes is like reading a foreign language, which you understand". "The Book of Repulsive Women" includes previously unpublished and uncollected poems, and five illustrations by Barnes herself. Rebecca Loncraine provides an introduction to Barnes' poetry.

    1 in stock

    £9.45

  • Collected Poems: Chinua Achebe

    Carcanet Press Ltd Collected Poems: Chinua Achebe

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisChinua Achebe is one of the founding fathers of African literature in English, a writer of world stature whose novel Things Fall Apart is one of the essential works of the twentieth century. This Collected Poems draws on his three collections of poetry, and includes seven previously unpublished poems; it reveals a lifetime of poetic engagement with politics, war and culture, inherited wisdom and the making of new futures. Achebe's poems are ironic, generous and tender, drawing deep on the Igbo traditions of his African roots, confronting the continent's harsh realities of violence and exploitation.Trade Review'There was a writer named Chinua Achebe, in whose company the prison walls fell down.' Nelson Mandela 'The father of African literature in the English language and undoubtedly one of the most important writers of the second half of the twentieth century.' Caryl Phillips 'Chinua Achebe is gloriously gifted with the magic of an ebullient, generous, great talent.' Nadine Gordimer 'He taught us a way of integrating what we know from being African with what we've become - hybrids of a kind.' Nuruddin Farah 'A magical writer - one of the greatest of the twentieth century.' Margaret AtwoodTable of ContentsTable of Contents In Lieu of a Preface: A Parable Prologue 1966 Benin Road Mango Seedling Pine Tree in Spring The Explorer Agostinho Neto Poems About War The First Shot A Mother in a Refugee Camp Christmas in Biafra (1969) Air Raid Biafra, 1969 An "If" of History Remembrance Day A Wake for Okigbo After a War Poems Not About War Love Song (for Anna) Love Cycle Question Answer Beware, Soul Brother NON-commitment Generation Gap Misunderstanding Knowing Robs Us Bull and Egret Lazarus Vultures Public Execution in Pictures Gods, Men, and Others Penalty of Godhead Those Gods Are Children Lament of the Sacred Python Their Idiot Song The Nigerian Census Flying Epilogue He Loves Me; He Loves Me Not Dereliction We Laughed at Him Notes

    1 in stock

    £10.79

  • Collected Poems: Sujata Bhatt

    Carcanet Press Ltd Collected Poems: Sujata Bhatt

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis book gathers four decades of writing, published in collections from Brunizem in 1988 to Pure Lizard in 2008. It maps the poet's trajectory, following her exile from her homeland, India, and her mother tongue, Gujarati, to the landscapes and languages of the USA and then Europe. Urgent, compassionate and inventive, Bhatt's work forms a uniquely sustained project of reinvention and rediscovery.Trade Review'Here is a chance to see Sujata Bhatt's favourite themes strengthened by re-gathering. A common theme is language, the very stuff of poetry, given special insight by her travels and her multilingual experience. In India, she says, it is 'a sin to be rude to a book'; 'The Stare' considers two babies, human and monkey, gazing at each other curiously, one with language, the other with... who knows? Elsewhere she considers the loss of her mother tongue, 'dead' in her mouth but returning to her in dreams. A broad-minded, humane, imaginative book.' --Gillian Clarke, National Poet of Wales 'Sujata Bhatt leads the reader through the bright, familiar world and on into the dark until her words pierce that darkness, offering a light that will challenge and reward. Here are poems that move confidently through that dangerous border-world between the real and the surreal, illuminating both. This book is a treasure-house of modern, magical poems.' --John F. Deane

    1 in stock

    £16.96

  • Trees be Company: An Anthology of Poetry

    Green Books Trees be Company: An Anthology of Poetry

    2 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    2 in stock

    £9.45

  • The Book

    Exact Change,U.S. The Book

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe French poet Stephane Mallarme (1842-1898) was modernism's great champion of the book as both a conceptual and material entity: probably his most famous pronouncement is 'everything in the world exists in order to end up as a book.' The Book was Mallarme's total artwork, a book to encompass all books. Frequently quoted, sometimes excerpted, but never before translated in its entirety, The Book is a visual poem about its own construction, the scaffolding of a cosmic architecture intended to reveal 'all existing relations between everything.'Trade ReviewA new language so we may continue toward new and newer forms of poetry — that is true poetic innovation. -- Marcella Durand * Hyperallergic *What a feast of Mallarmé we are treated to, with really persuasive translations of two major and important texts of this poet, who is without any doubt, quite certainly, the most important carryover from the poetry of the nineteenth century to our present and our future, in poetry and in life. -- Mary Ann Caws * Brooklyn Rail *

    1 in stock

    £13.29

  • The Middle English Breton Lays

    Medieval Institute Publications The Middle English Breton Lays

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis volume is the first to make the Middle English Breton lays available to teachers and students of the Middle Ages. Breton lays were produced by or after the fashion of Marie de France in the twelfth century and claim to be "literary versions of lays sung by ancient Bretons to the accompaniment of the harp." The poems edited in this volume are considered distinctly "English" Breton lays because of their focus on the family values of late medieval England. With the volume's helpful glosses, notes, introductions, and appendices, the door is opened for students to study Middle English poetry and the medieval family alike.Table of ContentsPreface General Introduction Sir Orfeo Introduction, Select Bibliography, Text, Notes Lay le Freine Introduction, Select Bibliography, Text, Notes Sir Degaré Introduction, Select Bibliography, Text, Notes Emaré Introduction, Select Bibliography, Text, Notes Sir Launfal Introduction, Select Bibliography, Text, Notes Sir Gowther Introduction, Select Bibliography, Text, Notes Erle of Tolous Introduction, Select Bibliography, Text, Notes Sir Cleges Introduction, Select Bibliography, Text, Notes Appendix A Marie de France, The Lay of the Ash Tree Appendix B Marie de France, The Lay of Sir Launfal Appendix C Sir Landevale Glossary

    1 in stock

    £17.50

  • Sunrise in the Eyes of the Snowman

    Biblioasis Sunrise in the Eyes of the Snowman

    2 in stock

    Book SynopsisSunrise in the Eyes of the Snowman, the latest collection by Bosnian expat Goran Simic, is as much a departure as it is a continuance. In this book, we find the world-renowned poet visiting familiar themes in fresh ways.Trade Review"The poems seesaw between the intimately personal and the universally political, tipping sometimes line to line, between melancholy love poems and profoundly painful reminiscences of the strife-torn country from which the poet came."—The Globe and Mail "His handling of fable and allegory is expert. And the title poem is a master class in staging and image-making."—Quill & Quire "Goran Simic's voice comes to us from a severe elsewhere, and we're lucky to have him now in English."—Books in Canada

    2 in stock

    £11.39

  • Lady in a Boat

    Peepal Tree Press Ltd Lady in a Boat

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisIn poems that express an oblique and resonant disquiet ('people dream of a lady/ in a boat, dressed in red/ petticoat, adrift and weeping') and a sequence that addresses memories of the death of the Grenadian revolution, too painful to confront until now, Merle Collins writes of a Caribbean adrift, amnesiac and in danger of nihilistic despair. But she also achieves a life-enhancing and consoling perspective on those griefs. She does this by revisiting the hopes and humanities of the people involved, recreating them in all their concrete particularity, or by speaking through the voice of an eighty-year-old woman 'making miracle/ with little money because turn hand is life lesson', and in writing poems that celebrate love, the world of children and the splendours of Caribbean nature. Her poems take the 'new dead ancestors back to/ mountain to feed the fountain/ of dreams again.'Merle Collins is Grenadian. She is the author of two novels, a collection of short stories and two previous collections of poetry. She teaches Caribbean literature at the University of Maryland.

    1 in stock

    £9.25

  • Sometimes I'm So Happy I'm Not Safe

    Wrecking Ball Press Sometimes I'm So Happy I'm Not Safe

    2 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    2 in stock

    £8.50

  • Take Me Up The Lighthouse

    Wrecking Ball Press Take Me Up The Lighthouse

    2 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    2 in stock

    £9.50

  • Consider the Years: 1938-1946

    Persephone Books Ltd Consider the Years: 1938-1946

    2 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    2 in stock

    £16.00

  • Galileo Publishers The Storm: And Other Poems

    Out of stock

    Book Synopsis

    Out of stock

    £999.99

  • King Henry VI Part 1: Third Series

    Bloomsbury Publishing PLC King Henry VI Part 1: Third Series

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisA fresh look at a play usually regarded as the first component of a three-part historical epic, this edition argues that Henry VI Part 1 is a 'prequel', a freestanding piece that returns for ironic and dramatic effect to a story already familiar to its audience. The play's ingenious use of stage space is closely analysed, as is its manipulation of a series of setpiece combats to give a coherent syntax of action. Discussion of the dramatic structure created by the opposing figures of Talbot and Jeanne la Pucelle, and exploration of the critical controversies surrounding the figure of Jeanne, lead to a reflection on the nature of the history play as genre in the 1590s.

    1 in stock

    £11.99

  • King Henry VI Part 2: Third Series

    Bloomsbury Publishing PLC King Henry VI Part 2: Third Series

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis edition celebrates King Henry VI Part 2 as one of the most exciting and dynamic plays of the English renaissance theatre, with its exploration of power politics and social revolution and its focus on the relationship between divine justice and sin. An extensive discussion of performance history traces the play's progress on stage from abridgement and adaptation to full historical epic. A survey of criticism discusses the wide range of responses provoked by the play's handling of its historical theme, and concludes by focusing on the element of burlesque in the attempted social revolution portrayed.

    1 in stock

    £11.99

  • The Merry Wives Of Windsor: Third Series

    Bloomsbury Publishing PLC The Merry Wives Of Windsor: Third Series

    2 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe Merry Wives of Windsor, Shakespeare's only thoroughly English comedy, created an archetypal literary figure in the shape of the devious, irrepressible John Falstaff. This stimulating new edition celebrates the play as a joyous exploration of language, but also places elements of its plot firmly in a continental, specifically Italian, tradition of romantic comedy. It draws out the complexities of Merry Wives as a multi-plot play, and takes a fresh and challenging look at both textual and dating issues; a facsimile of the first Quarto is included as an appendix. The play's extensive performance history, both dramatic and operatic, is fully explored and discussed.'This is a significant and substantive edition, in that nothing has been taken for granted, everything has been opened to reconsideration. The commentary is exceptionally detailed and attentive to questions of language and meaning.'John Jowett, Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham, Shakespeare QuarterlyTrade Review'This is a significant and substantive editoin, in that nothing has been taken for granted, everything has been opened to reconsideration. The commentary is exceptionally detailed and attentive to questions of language and meaning.' * Shakespeare Quarterly *'Shakespeare genially celebrates his own middle class English provincial background and seeks to do nothing more than entertain- which he does, splendidly.' * Charles Spencer, Daily Telegraph, 21.08.10 *

    2 in stock

    £11.99

  • All's Well That Ends Well

    Bloomsbury Publishing PLC All's Well That Ends Well

    2 in stock

    Book SynopsisIn All’s Well That Ends Well, Helen, a lowly ward, risks her life to satisfy her boundless love for Bertram, a count and ward to the King of France. Following him to Paris, she concocts an endangering plan to win the King of France’s favour and induce Bertram’s hand in marriage. In the comprehensive introduction to this new, fully-illustrated Arden edition, Suzanne Gossett takes a transformative look at the play’s critical and performance history by offering fresh perspectives on the conundrum of genre, sexuality and moral dilemmas with masculinity and the structures of family. The authoritative play text is amply annotated to clarify its language and allusions, and two appendices debate the play’s authorship and review its casting. Offering students and scholars alike a wealth of insight and new research, this edition maintains the rigorous standards of the Arden Shakespeare.Table of ContentsList of illustrations General editors’ preface Preface Introduction ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL Appendix 1: Casting All's Well That Ends Well Appendix 2: The Authorship Debate Abbreviations and references Index

    2 in stock

    £12.99

  • The Comedy of Errors

    Bloomsbury Publishing PLC The Comedy of Errors

    7 in stock

    Book SynopsisShakespeare’s dextrous comedy of two twin masters and two twin servants continually mistaken for one another is both farce and more than farce. The Comedy of Errors examines the interplay between personal and commercial relationships, and the breakdown of social order that follows the disruption of identity. As well as detailed on-page commentary notes, this new edition has a long, illustrated introduction exploring the play's performance and crtitical history, as well as its place in the comic tradition from Classical to modern times.Trade ReviewThe detailed scholarship of Cartwright's thematic introduction suits the Bard's most adaptable play, and unearths the textual gems for any critical reader, enthusiastic performer, or budding newcomer. * Sixteenth Century Journal *Cartwright's Introduction and notes make readers appreciate the richness, complexity and depth of a comedy that has often been brushed off as a mechanical "imitation" of Plautus's farcical Menaechmi. * Sederi Yearbook *An unapologetic and refreshingly enthusiastic celebration of a play whose disparagement in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries has had a lingering effect despite the more recent revival of its fortunes. While Cartwright gestures towards the play’s triumphant theatrical resurgence, he is most interested in its linguistic and structural complexities, unpacked in a rich introduction. * Shakespeare Survey *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations General editors’ preface Preface Introduction Laughter, Empathy and Memorability Error and Identity The Cultural World Poetic Geography, Travel, Dark Ephesus Genre Style: Verse and Prose Sources and Influences Staging Early Performances Afterlife: Image, Stage and Screen Editorial Procedures The Comedy of Errors Longer Notes Notes on Verse and Prose Appendix A: Casting and Doubling Appendix B: Date of Composition Appendix C: The Text Abbreviations and References

    7 in stock

    £11.67

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