British Poetry

The English language has grown into the world’s pre-dominant spoken language, containing over one million words. Its sources are rich and diverse, having absorbed words from other cultures and times without hesitation. With such talents as Shakespeare, Keats, Shelley, Kipling, Blake, and many other classic poets using this most flexible language to render their thoughts and visions, it is no wonder that the beauty and reach of English entrances us.

In this comprehensive anthology, former Poet Laureate Andrew Motion has gathered together exceptional poems from the 14th century through to the present day, creating an extraordinary poetic journey for the listener. From the love poems of Shelley and Keats to the grim war elegies of Owen and Sassoon, there is a poem here for every sentiment, each with something different to offer.

Read by Juliet Stevenson and Simon Callow, A Literary Christmas is a seasonal anthology that collects together poems, short stories, and prose extracts by some of the greatest poets and writers in the English language. Like Charles Dickens’ ghosts of Christmas Past and Present, they are representative of times old and new - from John Donne’s Elizabethan hymn over the baby Jesus to Rudyard Kipling’s "Christmas in India", from Thomas Tusser counting the cost of a Tudor feast to Laurie Lee’s "Cider with Rosie".

With Muse of Fire, Michael Korda, the bestselling author of Alone and Hero, takes a novel approach to World War I by telling its history through the lives of the soldier-poets whose verses memorialize the war's unimaginable horrors. He begins with Rupert Brooke and the halcyon days before violence engulfed his generation—destroying the self-contented world of Edwardian England—and ends with the tragic death of Wilfred Owen, killed only days before the armistice brought an end to a war that took over 25,000,000 lives.

First published in 1952, Herbert and Eleanor Farjeon’s Kings and Queens has attained the status of a children’s classic. The charming poems, each one dedicated to a different king or queen, tell the story of the 41 English monarchs from William I to Elizabeth II in a humorous and charming way that has delighted generations of children and their parents.

An illustrated study guide to poetry written by men and women in all parts of the British Isles during the First World War, 1914–18. This rich and valuable ebook has numerous fascinating hyperlinks to online resources. It discusses significant individual poems by the writers named, exploring them within their social, political and aesthetic frames and summarising important earlier critical readings and responses. It is copiously illustrated and covers Thomas Hardy, Popular Poetry, Anthologies, War Poetry by Women, the work of Graves, Blunden and Gurney, Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen, ...

Fog obscured the channel today … I had no idea it would be the beginning of a very long stay. As soon as I speak, I always get the question, "Where are you from?" My typical answer is, "California," where I grew up. I notice most of the time I don't even mention Britain. That is a disservice--the place shaped me more than know. The poems, vignettes, and stories from the UK in this book are an effort to acknowledge both place and experience. Before I left, while on a trip to Venice, I found a handmade notebook, leather bound with paper perfect for ink and quill, as well as watercolor. So, ...

Ró finds school impossible. She knows people think she's shy - and stupid. But when she goes to the bay each afternoon to watch the dolphin leap through the water, she finds the strength to keep going. Then the dolphin disappears, and everything starts falling apart. How much is Ró willing to risk to find him?

"Life is a beautiful, chaotic mess - a fact that John Bowie captures flawlessly in his stunning third poetry collection." The pages of this book are filled with raw, unfiltered emotions that will take readers on a journey through the human experience. From the highs of love and life to the lows of inescapable death, each poem is a window into the complexity of our existence. Bowie is a master poet, weaving together words that will tug at your heartstrings and make you see the world in a whole new light. With an unapologetic and soulful writing style, he invites readers to embrace the ...

A delightfully oddball classic by G.K. Chesterton—now with illustrations and bonus whimsy! Dancing stars, leaping gentlemen, and poetic nonsense await in Greybeards at Play, Chesterton’s very first published work. This lighthearted collection pokes fun at literary seriousness while celebrating imagination in its purest form. This edition features 25 quirky poems (including a dedication, moral, and envoy), each paired with illustrations that capture the spirit and wit of the original work—bringing Chesterton’s humor to life like never before. BONUS CONTENT INCLUDED: At the end of the...

A delightful collection from around the British Isles including Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold, Leisure by W. H Davis and To Autumn by John Keats. Featuring classic recordings by Richard Burton, Sir John Gielgud and Sir Ralph Richardson.

DCI Ellie Blackwell trusts the certainties of history, the clean lines of a 17th-century map. Her life is a fortress of order built against the chaos of her job. But when she's called to the scene of a wealthy developer's apparent suicide, the clues are a maddening mess of contradictions. At the heart of it all: a three-line Japanese poem that feels like a key to the wrong lock.

This book is about love, beauty, God, and the soul, a spiritual journey of transformation whereby the insights given into God, Jesus, and Mary, the Mother of God, are like precious jewels. Mary Elizabeth lives in England and is a secular member of the Order of Carmelites Discalced.

Award-winning spoken word artist George the Poet brings together an incredible roster of Black British poets in this important and exciting new anthology, exploring people, moments and events from Black British history. Featuring works by established poets and new wordsmiths alike, Part of a Story That Started Before Me is the perfect listen for fans of Kayo Chingonyi's More Fiya and David Olusoga's Black and British.

Jackie Kay’s new collection is a lyric counterpart to her memoir, Red Dust Road, the extraordinary story of the search for her Nigerian and Highland birth-parents; but it is also a moving book in its own right, and a deep enquiry into all forms of human friendship. Fiere – Scots for ‘companion, friend, equal’ – is a vivid description of the many paths our lives take, and of how those journeys are made meaningful by our companions on the road: lovers, friends, parents, children, mentors – as well as all the remarkable and chance acquaintances we would not otherwise have made.

In 1918 Lytton Strachey published Eminent Victorians, which was a take-down of popular Victorian heroes. In reality, he argued, these paragons of virtue had feet of clay, a dark side that had been conveniently overlooked. The book was an enormous hit, for in speaking to his generation, he was preaching to the converted: even beyond the influential Bloomsbury Circle, of which he was a leading light, there was a widespread revulsion against the hypocrisy, the stilted formalism, and the emotional repression of the Victorian era. In the following study, Morris Berman aims to do the reverse, i.e...

Jackie Kay’s new collection is a lyric counterpart to her memoir, Red Dust Road, the extraordinary story of the search for her Nigerian and Highland birth-parents; but it is also a moving book in its own right, and a deep enquiry into all forms of human friendship. Fiere – Scots for ‘companion, friend, equal’ – is a vivid description of the many paths our lives take, and of how those journeys are made meaningful by our companions on the road: lovers, friends, parents, children, mentors – as well as all the remarkable and chance acquaintances we would not otherwise have made.

This collection brings together the work of nine inventive and brilliant poets who defined and drove the dub poetry genre. From the Caribbean, Canada and the UK, the poetry in this collection spans forty years, as dub became a powerful cultural and creative force. The poets included in this collection are: Oku Onuora, Mikey Smith, Mutabaruka, Jean 'Binta' Breeze, James Berry, Benjamin Zephaniah, Ahdri Zhina Mandiela, Lillian Allen and Afua Cooper.