Running Late

A major volume for Hutchinson's most distinguished poet.

Abse's poems are filled with wonder. He remains one of our few great poets of married love

His best work in a long life of brilliant writing

This is a poet writing at the height of his powers

These poems are brilliant, savage, witty - the work of an old master

Truly remarkable... I recommend this book

Dannie Abse was for many years a chest specialist in a London teaching hospital. A poet, reviewer and playwright, he has written and edited more than fifteen books of poetry, as well as books about medicine and also fiction. He is the author of Ash on a Young Man's Sleeve and several autobiographical volumes, including Goodbye, Twentieth Century, which was published in 2001 to critical acclaim. He died, at the age of 91, in September 2014.

Dannie Abse's distinctiveness as a poet lies in his clarity. His distinction lies in his imaginative and feeling responses to a variety of different worlds - work as a doctor, the experience of life in Wales and North London, the mysterious nature of creativity, the Jewish and bardic traditions. This collection draws on all these strands and is divided between personal experience and more general reflections, often prompted by an urgent awareness of the passing of time, counterpointed with transcendent moments of joy in ordinary things.

Two for Joy

Celebrating a marriage through poetry - Dannie Abse's extraordinary sequel to The Presence returns to his life before his bereavement

I love their delicacy, their exquisite taste, and the sense of their sustained happiness together.

Dannie and Joan Abse had been married for more than fifty years when she was killed in a car crash in 2005. After her death he wrote his extraordinary memoir of loss, The Presence, which was the Wales Book of the Year in 2008. 
 
In contrast, much of this new collection is a delightful celebration. In it Dannie Abse returns to their marriage through all its seasons, and celebrates love in verse which is funny, tender and playful as well as serious and passionate. Almost half the poems appear in this form for the first time. 
 
'One for sorrow, two for joy' is the old country saw about the magpie. These poems reflect its truth, and in the process transfigure ordinary life and love into something rich and strange.

New Selected Poems

A new and definitive volume of poems, which includes new work, to mark Dannie Abse's 60 years with Hutchinson.

The Presence is a fragment of autobiography written from the most private part of a poet's heart, with a pen dipped in blood and tears

For all its painful honesty [The Presence is] a surprisingly joyful and compelling book... Imbued with all the best qualities of what it means to human and in love

The year 2009 marks the 60th anniversary of the publication of Dannie Abse's first poetry collection, After Every Green Thing, and since that time he has published an astonishing range of books, including poetry, fiction, criticism and autobiography. He remains a writer of great distinction who is at the height of his powers - his memoir, The Presence, won the Wales Book of the Year in 2008. But it is as a poet that Dannie Abse is best known, and to mark this extraordinary milestone he has compiled a new and definitive volume of selected poems which includes new work combining both passion and maturity.

The Presence

A moving memoir by a distinguished poet, written in the wake of his wife's death, this is a profound story of life, love and heartbreaking loss. 
 
Winner of the Wales Book of the Year and shortlisted for the Pen/Ackerly Prize.

A supremely fresh and vital performance, matching profound emotion with witty observation... This is a truly marvellous book

Abse's diary is a remarkable and tender document

For all its painful honesty, [this is] a surprisingly joyful and compelling book... Imbued with all the best qualities of what it means to human and in love

The Presence is a fragment of autobiography written from the most private part of a poet's heart, with a pen dipped in blood and tears. That it transcends this to become both elegiac and celebratory, to inhabit both the suffered present and the beloved past, places it almost beyond the scope of routine criticism.

Hauntingly poignant... One hopes that he comes before long to share the happiness this wise, funny, heart rending little book brings to its readers

Full of memorable images... As Abse performs the strange and also strangely valuable work of mourning, he offers, with The Presence, wit and balm

Elegy and eulogy, full of kindness and understanding of our common vulnerablility, this lovely book is a very rich boon

WINNER OF THE WALES BOOK OF THE YEAR AND SHORTLISTED FOR THE PEN/ACKERLY PRIZE. 
 
Several months after the death of poet Dannie Abse's wife, Joan, in a car accident, he began to write a diary which is both a record of present grief and a portrait of a marriage that lasted more than fifty years. It is an extraordinary document, painful but celebratory, funny yet often tragic, bursting with joy as well as sorrow and full of a deep understanding of what it means to be human.

Dannie Abse

2013 marks Dannie Abse's 90th birthday. In his lifetime he has published an astonishing array of work including poetry, fiction, criticism, plays and autobiography but it is as a poet that he is best known and loved. 
 
In Speak, Old Parrot he returns to themes of loss, love, medicine and its moral implications, the nature of creativity, Jewish folk tradition and the passing of time. The poems are observant of the outside world as well as the inner life and emotions but most of all they are a joy to read.

Dannie Abse

Speak, Old Parrot

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