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A A Gill

Andrew Swanston read law at Cambridge, but was inspired to write by his lifelong interest in early modern history. His Thomas Hill novels – The King’s Spy, The King’s Exile and The King’s Return – are set against the backdrops of the English Civil War, Cromwell’s Commonwealth and the early Restoration respectively. He is also the author of Waterloo: The Bravest Man and Beautiful Star and Other Stories. His first historical thriller set during the reign of Elizabeth I – Incendium (published in paperback as The Incendium Plot) – introduced readers to the academic, lawyer and intelligencer Dr Christopher Radcliff, whose adventures continue in Chaos. Andrew Swanston lives in Surrey.

A D Swanston

A E Langsford

A G Hopkins

A. J. BAIME is the New York Times best-selling author of The Arsenal of Democracy: FDR, Detroit, and an Epic Quest to Arm an America at War and Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans. Both books are in development for major motion pictures. Baime is a longtime regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal, and his articles have also appeared in the New York Times, Popular Science, and Men’s Journal. He lives in Granite Bay, California. Visit him at facebook.com/ajbaime and trumanbook.com.

A J Baime

A J Jacobs

A J P Taylor

Anthony James Pollard is a British medieval historian, specialising in the fifteenth century and in particular the Wars of the Roses. A leading authority in the field, he is profesor emeritus of Teesside University. His books include North-Eastern England during the Wars of the Roses, Richard III and the Princes in theTower, Imagining Robin Hood: the Late Medieval Stories in Historical Context and Warwick the kingmaker: Politics, Power and Fame.

A J Pollard

A J Rochester

A K Benjamin is a clinical neuropsychologist and the author of Let Me Not Be Mad: A Story of Unravelling Minds.

A K Benjamin

A. L. Berridge read English at Oxford, and taught for ten years before moving into television, where her production credits range from period drama and thrillers to long-running soaps. She has written two previous novels, Top Ten besteller Honour and the Sword and In the Name of the King. Into the Valley of Death is her third novel.

A L Berridge

Alison Gaylin's first job was as a reporter for a celebrity tabloid, which sparked a lifelong interest in writing about people committing despicable acts. More than a decade later, she wrote and published her Edgar-nominated first novel, HIDE YOUR EYES. 
 
She's since published nine more books, including the USA Today and international bestselling Brenna Spector suspense series, which has been nominated for the Edgar, Anthony and Thriller awards and won the Shamus award. 
 
She lives in upstate New York with her husband, daughter, cat and dog.

A L Gaylin

A Maxwell-Hyslop

A McArthur

A P Wavell

A.S. Webb is the Sunday Times bestselling author of Daughter of Chaos, the first instalment of The Dark Pantheon Trilogy. She is inspired by stories rooted in history and mythology, that push the boundaries of imagination and urge us to reflect on what it means to be human.

A S Webb

A. A. Dhand is the author of six previous novels, and has been shortlisted for the CWA Steel Dagger Award. His DI Harry Virdee novels are currently being adapted for TV by the BBC. He was raised in Bradford and spent his youth observing the city from behind the counter of a small convenience store. After qualifying as a pharmacist, he worked in London and travelled extensively before returning to Bradford to start his own business and begin writing. The history, diversity and darkness of the city have inspired all his novels. For more information about A. A. Dhand and his books, follow him on X @aadhand, and on Instagram @aa_dhand.

A. A. Dhand

A. A. Gill

A. A. Milne

A. Anatoli

A. B. Poranek grew up sharing her time between Ontario, Canada and rural Poland, and eventually completed a veterinary degree at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences. A lover of mythology and history, she enjoys exploring both in her writing. Her debut novel, Where the Dark Stands Still, an instant New York Times bestseller, is an ode to Poland's folktales, while A Treachery of Swans transports readers to a world inspired by 17th century France.

A. B. Poranek

A. Bradley

Professor A. C. Grayling is Principal of the New College of the Humanities at Northeastern University, London, and a Supernumerary Fellow of St Anne's College, Oxford. He has written and edited over thirty books on philosophy, history, science and current affairs. For several years he wrote columns for the Guardian newspaper and The Times and was the chairman of the 2014 Man Booker Prize.

A. C. Grayling

A.D. Miller is the author of Snowdrops, The Earl of Petticoat Lane and The Faithful Couple. Snowdrops was a bestseller and was shortlisted for many prizes including the Man Booker and the CWA Gold Dagger. It was translated into 25 languages. As Moscow Correspondent of The Economist A.D. Miller has travelled across the former Soviet Union and covered the Orange Revolution in Ukraine; he is now the magazine’s Culture Editor based in London. 
 
admillerbooks.com

A. D. Miller

A. E. Ellis

A. E. W. Mason

A. Humphreys

A. Igoni Barrett was born in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, in 1979 and lives in Lagos. He is a winner of the 2005 BBC World Service short story competition, the recipient of a Chinua Achebe Center Fellowship, a Norman Mailer Center Fellowship, and a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Residency. His short story collection, Love is Power, or Something Like That, was published in 2013. In 2014 he was named on the Africa39 list of sub-Saharan African writers under 40. Blackass is his first novel.

A. Igoni Barrett

The short life of A.J.A. Symons (1900-41) was described by his biographer as an intricate and largely harmless confidence trick. His many interests included the collection of musical boxes and rare books as well as the study and practice of forgery; they left him time to edit an anthology of Edwardian verse and compose studies of H.M. Stanley and other notable figures. He is remembered for The Quest for Corvo, one of the most remarkable biographies ever written, and for co-founding the Wine and Food Society.

A. J. A. Symons

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Ariana Reines

Fury is very lustful 
A body concealing its heart’s desire 
 
Has a certain texture 
A tang or an edge if you will 
 
That the openhearted cannot match 
& when exactly does the deceitful 
 
Heart open? At climax. 
—from ‘The Hanged Man’ 
 
 
The Rose navigates the intersection of power and surrender. Drawing on the history of ‘romance’ as the troubadours knew it, and the titular flower’s ancient allegories for sexuality and mystery, award-winning poet Ariana Reines plunges into feminine archetypes to explore masculine pain: ‘I have always liked helpless / & terrible men because they break my mind.’ In these poems, inherited ideologies of gender performance are replaced with bold vulnerability: paradoxes of power and surrender transmute the speaker’s understanding of suffering, desire, and the soul. 
 
The voice in The Rose is wry and bare, approaching the connection between erotic love and spirituality with humour. Investigating war, maternity, violent sensuality, and the role of language in magical acts, Reines is unafraid to uncover the ‘secret / & terrible shovelings / Of love,’ and the result is a bloody and pulsing, sexy and unabashed bloom.

The Rose

Michael Ondaatje

With A Year of Last Things, acclaimed novelist Michael Ondaatje returns to poetry, looking back on a life of displacement and discovery 
 
'My life always stops for a new book by him' JHUMPA LAHIRI 
 
'A generous, moving book' GUARDIAN 
 
Born in Sri Lanka during the Second World War, Ondaatje was sent as a child to school in London, and later moved to Canada. While he has lived there since, these poems reflect the life of a writer, traveller and watcher of the world &ndash; describing himself as a 'mongrel', someone born out of diverse cultures. 
 
Here, rediscovering the influence of every border crossed, he moves back and forth in time, from a childhood in Sri Lanka to Molière&rsquo;s chair during his last stage performance, from icons in Bulgarian churches to the Californian coast and loved Canadian rivers, merging memory with the present, looking back on a life of displacement and discovery, love and loss. As he writes in the opening poem: 
 
Reading the lines he loves 
he slips them into a pocket, 
wishes to die with his clothes 
full of torn-free stanzas 
and the telephone numbers 
of his children in far cities 
 
Poetry &ndash; where language is made to work hardest and burns with a gem-like flame - is what Ondaatje has returned to in this intimate history.

A Year of Last Things

Han Kang

In this light-filled and multi-faceted book, her first since being awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, Han Kang draws together the threads of her work and life, tracing the connections between her interior and exterior worlds through a sequence of essays, poems, photographs and diaries. 
 
A book of reflections, of words and light, it has at its heart the tiny, north-facing courtyard garden at her home, cultivated solely through the reflected sunlight of the mirrors which she must move throughout the day, as the earth turns on its axis. 
 
In a poem written at eight years old, Han Kang imagined a ‘gold thread’ of connection – an idea which she explores here with luminous attention, beginning with her Nobel Lecture. She writes of the wonder of following the thread we call language into the depths of other hearts, and her profound sense of an electric current which joins writer and reader. 
 
Both intimate and illuminating, Light and Thread is a book for all readers of Han Kang’s unique body of work.

Light and Thread

From independence movements in Sri Lanka to train stations in contemporary Ontario, an intimate and witty selection of Michael Ondaatje’s most widely loved poems taken across fifty years 
 
'My life always stops for a new book by Michael Ondaatje' JHUMPA LAHIRI 
 
Through poems that grow out of his profound understanding of the subtle complexities of life and relationships, of how we lose and find ourselves, Michael Ondaatje navigates his own past, beginning with memories of his childhood in Sri Lanka and his eccentric family, to his life in rural southern Ontario with its beloved rivers, celebrations of treasured friends, the close ties of children. 
 
Ondaatje is one of the great poets of love, and here we follow him through the exhilarations of youth into that ‘storm of music’, the passionate, sensuous swerves of longing and desire, until we reach the calm of that moment when ‘only a cloud’s reflection holding you up / You swim into late afternoon’. 
 
The Distance of a Shout offers us a glimpse into the interwoven life and art of one of our most cherished poets and novelists – a reminder itself of the power of great poetry to shine a light on living. 
 
'Each new book of Michael Ondaatje’s is a literary event, but that is particularly true for his books of poetry' TERRANCE HAYES

The Distance of a Shout: Selected Poems

Jessica Urlichs

Sunday Times bestselling author and Instagram sensation Jessica Urlichs returns with a new collection of beautifully observed poems about the ever-evolving journey of motherhood - the hard, the magic, and the fleeting. 
 
A mother is born the moment her children are, growing and blossoming alongside them. They Bloom Because of You is a celebration of that profound journey - a testament to the significance of mothering, and the quiet, extraordinary beauty of watching our children unfurl into who they are meant to be.Through words that have comforted millions, Jess Urlichs has become that gentle, unwavering friend - the voice that walks beside mothers through shimmering highs and the darkest, sleepless nights. In this new and deeply personal collection, her poetry resonates with fresh meaning as she reflects on the ever-changing joys and challenges of raising her growing family.Whether Jess’s words have already touched your heart or you are discovering them for the very first time, this collection will leave you feeling held, seen, and deeply moved - with an ever-deepening love for your children and the journey of motherhood itself.

They Bloom Because of You

on the infinite love, growth and magic of motherhood

Nick Makoha

In The New Carthaginians, time – and with it the world – is out of joint. A hijacked plane lands at Entebbe International Airport in 1976, triggering the crisis that leads to Uganda becoming a pariah state and later to the young Makoha’s escape from the country. 
 
Concerned throughout with flight and falling, the sample and the loop, The New Carthaginians is a poetry collection of staggering originality: a work by an author at the height of his powers, in which the familiar Western canons of art, history and philosophy are prised apart and reassembled in a new configuration. Drawing on Basquiat’s technique of the ‘exploded’ collage, Makoha’s triumvirate of characters – the Poet, a Black Icarus and a resurrected Jean-Michel Basquiat – embark on a heroes’ odyssey, gathering the symbols of a new mythos, through which the othering of Black life might be undone and the stage set for some fresh emergence, some transfigured understanding of myth and life. ‘Hold that note,’ writes the poet. ‘In this place you are no longer the chorus . . . In any future, remember you are a New Carthaginian.’

The New Carthaginians

Robert Browning

BBC Radio dramatisations and readings of Browning’s most famous poems, performed by stars including Anton Lesser, Roger Allam and David Tennant, plus two bonus plays 
 
Victorian poet Robert Browning was renowned for his evocative dramatic monologues peopled with vivid, morally ambiguous characters. In 1846, he eloped with fellow poet Elizabeth Barrett, and they rapidly became Britain’s most famous literary power couple. This collection brings together four of Browning’s poetic masterpieces, juxtaposed with a play inspired by his work and a drama about Robert and Elizabeth’s romance. 
 
The Ring and the Book – In the aftermath of a triple stabbing, Rome is rife with speculation. Accused of murdering his young wife and her parents, Count Guido Franceschini is put on trial, and finds himself desperately fighting for his life. Anton Lesser, Roger Allam and Andrew Sachs star in this thrilling tale of of sex, lies, murder and justice. 
 
The Pied Piper of Hamlin – When a town fails to pay the rat-catcher who has lured all the rats away with his magic pipe, the piper takes a terrible revenge. Playing his music once more, he leads all the children from the town. Only one boy remains behind… David Tennant stars as the Narrator, with Bertie Gilbert as the boy. 
 
My Last Duchess – Based on Browning’s chilling poem about an aristocrat whose wife died young in suspicious circumstances, this intriguing dramatisation attempts to solve the mystery of what happened to the duchess, and who did the deed. Starring Roger Allam, Emily Mortimer and Tim McInnerny. Content Warning: The themes present in this drama could be distressing for some listeners . 
 
Andrea del Sarto – Richard Pasco reads Robert Browning's monologue about the 16th-century Florentine artist known as ‘the faultless painter’, whose marriage was the source of deep unhappiness. 
 
The Contemplative Life – Brother James's loathing of oafish Brother Lawrence has led him to petty acts of destruction. As a punishment, he is forced to share a cell with him… Alan Rickman and Michael Aldridge star in this comedy inspired by Browning’s poem ‘Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister’. 
 
The Barretts of Wimpole Street – Starring Dorothy Tutin and Jeremy Brett, this radio version of Rudolf Besier’s celebrated stage play explores the secret courtship of Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning, which took place at No 50 Wimpole Street, her father’s forbidding household. 
 
First published 1842 (‘The Pied Piper of Hamelin’, ‘My Last Duchess’), 1855 (‘Andrea del Sarto’), 1868 (‘The Ring and the Book’) 
 
Cast and credits 
Written by Robert Browning 
 
The Ring and the Book 
Cast: Anton Lesser, Roger Allam, Lou Brealey, Dominic Rowan, Andrew Sachs, Frances Jeater, Dan Starkey, Stephen Critchlow, Ben Crowe, Chris Pavlo, Joan Walker, John Rowe, Michael Maloney, Stephen Moore 
 
The Pied Piper of Hamelin 
Cast: David Tennant, Bertie Gilbert 
With music and songs written and performed by John Harle, lyrics by Joyce Harle, sung by Thomas Platts, head chorister at Canterbury Cathedral with the choir of Wingham School, Kent 
 
My Last Duchess 
Cast: Roger Allam, Emily Mortimer, Tim McInnerny, Robert Hands, John Hartley, Jacob Heringman 
 
Andrea del Sarto 
Read by Richard Pasco 
 
The Contemplative Life 
Cast: Alan Rickman, Michael Aldridge, David Garth, Brian Smith, Colin Starkey, David Sinclair, 
Trevor Nichols, John Webb 
 
The Barretts of Wimpole Street 
Cast: Dorothy Tutin, Jeremy Brett, Paul Rogers, William Eedle, John Rowe, John Samson, 
Robin Browne, David Valla, Christopher Good, Kate Binchy, Jane Knowles, Kenneth Fortescue, 
Helen Worth, Michael Kilgarriff, Rolf Lefebvre, John Ruddock, Sheila Grant 
 
© 2026 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2026 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Robert Browning: The Ring and the Book, The Pied Piper of Hamelin & more

BBC Radio dramatic reimaginings of five iconic poems

Rithvik Singh

'Dear reader, I love you. And I hope you love yourself enough to leave anyone who breaks your heart. Your heart was meant to be worshipped, not turned into a war zone.' 
 
A tender exploration of love, loss, heartbreak and healing. I Don’t Love You Anymore is a deeply personal collection of poems and reflections navigating the emotional terrain of modern relationships by award-winning poet and author Rithvik Singh. For anyone who feels deeply, who cares intensely or who has ever loved and lost ,this book will feel like coming home.

I Don't Love You Anymore

Moving On & Living Your Best Life

David Larbi

From the TikTok poetry sensation David Larbi, a selection of poems, meditations and journal prompts to help you find the joy - no matter how big or small - in every moment 
 
I always pay attention 
When a small joy grabs me 
Some say easily pleased 
I say, frequently happy! 
 
In the middle of stress and turmoil, it can be easy to miss the daily opportunities we have for delight. But every day holds the potential for more meaning, connection and lasting fulfilment. Cheerful poet David Larbi reminds us that in every season of life, it is possible to find happiness. 
 
Through bright poems, moving meditations and inspiring journal prompts, this book offers you a chance to reflect on the joyful moments all around you and build a deeper habit of noticing and appreciating life’s simple and profound pleasures. 
 
‘Filled with such personality and contagious optimism . . . I love this book’ Matt Haig 
‘A vital handbook for navigating the seasons of life’ Candice Carty-Williams 
‘This book is a ray of sunshine’ Fearne Cotton

Frequently Happy

52 Mindful Moments to Bring Hope and Joy

Lucas Jones

*THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER* 
 
A collection of powerful contemporary poetry exploring themes of masculinity, love, grief and connection, from British poet and viral phenomenon Lucas Jones. 
 
'You're here to make 
All the wonder make sense 
You're not the life - 
You're the living itself' 
 
How do you respond to fear, grief, heartbreak, war, loss, injustice and a world that seems more divided and lost than ever? Poet Lucas Jones explores how we search for meaning in difficult times in this remarkable homage to the beautiful humanity of choosing to love despite it all. 
 
Powerful, uplifting and authentic, these are poems to remind you that there is profound and unwavering hope.

I Still Believe in Miracles

Poems to Find Meaning in Difficult Times

Catherine Clarke

This is the history of England told in a new way: glimpsed through twenty-five remarkable poems written down between the eighth century and today, which connect us directly with the nation’s past, and the experiences, emotions and imaginations of those who lived it. 
 
These poems open windows onto wildly different worlds – from the public to the intimate, from the witty to the savage, from the playful to the wistful. They take us onto battlefields, inside royal courts, down coal mines and below stairs in great houses. Their creators, witnesses to events from the Great Fire of London to the Miners’ Strike, range from the famous to the forgotten, yet each invites us into an immersive encounter with their own time. 
 
A History of England in 25 Poems is a portal to the past; a constant companion, filled with vivid voices and surprising stories alongside familiar landmarks, and language that speaks in new ways on each reading. Catherine Clarke’s knowledge and passion take us inside the words and the moments they capture, with thoughtful insights, humour and new perspectives on how the nation has dreamed itself into existence – and who gets to tell England’s story.

A History of England in 25 Poems

William Shakespeare

James Anthony

'James Anthony has done something I would have confidently stated to be impossible. He has "translated" Shakespeare’s sonnets and he has done so with an insolent, loveable charm … A dazzling success’ – Stephen Fry 
 
Rediscover the greatest love poetry ever written 
 
Shall I compare you to a summer’s day? 
You’re more delightful, always shining strong; 
High winds blow hard on flowering buds in May, 
And summer never seems to last that long… 
 
 
Shakespeare’s sonnets are some of the nation’s favourite lines of verse, but the Elizabethan language can make it difficult to really understand them. Many guides offer to clarify the meaning, but lose the magic of the words by explaining them away. 
 
James Anthony has done something boldly different. 
 
He has rewritten the whole series of poems as sonnets using modern language, while retaining the rhythm and rhyme patterns that gives them such power. In doing so he breathes new life into the original poems and opens them up for a modern readership, demystifying Shakespeare’s eternal poetry with provocative new translations and delightful new lines. 
 
Presented as an attractive book with the original sonnets facing their new translations, this is a stunning collection of beautiful love poems, made new.

Shakespeare’s Sonnets, Retold

Classic Love Poems with a Modern Twist

Various

This is dub poetry: bold and musical, funny and furious. 
 
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. 
 
With roots in the reggae culture of 1970s Kingston, dub poetry uses the vivid expressions of everyday spoken language to describe and challenge the experience of life on the margins. Early dub poetry took on police violence, slums and poverty. Later, as Caribbean migrants arrived in countries like Britain and Canada, dub poets faced new issues: racism, discrimination and hostility. Over four difficult decades, dub gave marginalised people a voice for their anger, defiance and creativity. It was the soundtrack to post-Windrush culture. 
 
Serious and humorous, alive and urgent, here is the very best of dub poetry. 
 
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.

Verbal Riddim

Dub Poetry

John Hegley

The hilarious poet laureate of alternative comedy delights audiences around the UK Listen and laugh as John Hegley, the hilarious and haphazard poet laureate of alternative comedy, entertains audiences with his unique book of verse. This collection has the complete three series of this not-to-be-missed listening treat. Recorded in front of live audiences across the UK, including locations such as the Cheltenham Literary Festival and Aldeburgh Poetry Festival, Hegley presents tales of the Tate, a jumble sale and an armadillo, poems dedicated to Bonfire Night and not waving, songs about glasses, plus a surreal adventure in a Tardis-like kennel. The joyous possibilities of flannel, fennel and funnel are also investigated.Settle down and listen as the nation's second favourite comic poet asks, "How long is your dog?", and discovers that sometimes a poem doesn't necessarily want to be a poem. Joined by a host of guests including radio DJs Mark Radcliffe and Mark Riley, comedian Tony Curtis and with musical accompaniment from Nigel Piper and the Popticians this is a listening gem.John Hegley is a hugely popular voice on BBC Radio. An established author, Hegley is most famous for his children’s book Stanley's Stick, as well as numerous comic poetry collections, such as Peace, Love and Potatoes. He has produced ten books of verse and prose pieces, two CDs and one mug, and he performs live in venues all over the UK. Cast and creditsWritten by John HegleyProduced by Phil Clarke and Nigel PiperMusic by Nigel Piper and the PopticiansSeries 1With Nigel Piper, Keith Moore, Susan Norton, Andrew Bailey, Roy O’Shea and Tony CurtisFirst Broadcast BBC Radio 4, 30th Oct - 11th Dec 1996Series 2With Nigel Piper, Keith Moore, Susan Norton and Andrew Bailey First Broadcast BBC Radio 4, 26th Aug - 14th Oct 1998Series 3With Nigel Piper, Simon Munnery, Andrew Bailey, Arnold Brown, Keith Moore, Christopher Logue, Mark Radcliffe and Mark Riley First Broadcast BBC Radio 4, 2nd Feb - 22nd Mar 2000©2025 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2025 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Hearing with Hegley: The Complete Series 1-3

A BBC Radio Comedy Series

Alex Dimitrov

'Ecstasy stands out for its brutal examination of the transience of Eros ... Campy and fun' Guardian 
 
In Ecstasy, Alex Dimitrov embraces a life on the edge in New York and the finely wrought poetry that can come out of it. 
 
He explores sex, drugs, parties, pleasure, and God in the 2020s, and looks back to a coming-of-age in the 1990s that still informs who his generation is and will be. His unabashed and drivingly musical poems are a call against repression, a rebuke of cultural norms and shame, and a celebration of human authenticity – even if to live under such philosophies is dangerous. 
 
In ‘Today I Love Being Alive’, we find the poet naked in his kitchen, eating a banana and obsessed with a new lover, declaring ‘I don't care about being remembered. / I care about . . . Strong men. Beautiful sentences. Italian leather’; in ‘Poppers’, he stands lightheaded in the bathroom at a bar, ‘thinking of what to do / with the rest of my life’, and issuing a warning to himself and us: ‘Poetry / is not a self-help book.’ 
 
Dimitrov is an iconographer of contemporary life, able to pin profound and timeless meaning to a fleeting encounter in the street. Ecstasy also engages with the poet’s Christian upbringing, interrogating faith as both an enemy and valve of catharsis, and a bedfellow of what this book celebrates and courts: profound human ecstasy. 
 
'A rollicking paean to pleasure, an ode to realness and resilience ... Raw and honest and deeply personal' New York Times 
 
'Dimitrov is that rarest of creatures, a true poet and a truly contemporary poet. Thank god he's here' Michael Cunningham, author of The Hours 
 
*A most anticipated queer book for Spring 2025 in Electric Literature*

Ecstasy

Karen Downs-Barton

‘Like amber, these poems capture moments of time, place and feeling' Lemn Sissay, author of My Name is Why 
 
'An assured debut . . . It's not just the Dickensian narrative that's gripping , but the way it brings different forms to bear on its material' Guardian 
 
'Don’t worry, I’m here in the house where every room has a name, but children’s names are often forgotten.' 
 
Uplifting and heart-breaking, this lyrical evocation of an Anglo-Romani childhood marks the arrival of a vital new voice. 
 
MINX reveals the vibrant but precarious world of a multi-racial Romani family: a world of grandfathers brewing moonshine in marrows, basement reggae parties, and a mother struggling to support her two daughters on the proceeds of her shadowy profession. Their powerful bond helps the sisters survive when they’re taken into care, in a children’s home that forcibly separates them. 
 
With a verve and playfulness that belies their pain, these poems explore what it means to belong. Through daring experiments with form and narrative, MINX captures how it feels to grow up between a culture whose traditional ways are being lost and a wider society that despises them. 
 
'Moving, magical, mesmerising, these poems stay with you long after the pages are closed’ Jackie Kay, author of Fiere

Minx

Booker prize winning author Michael Ondaatje invites you on a brutal, beautiful journey into the American West. . . 
 
At twenty-one years old, Billy the Kid has killed a man for each year he’s been alive. 
 
Roaming the blasted planes of the Wild West, he moves between friends, foes and lovers, fighting to keep just one step ahead of the law. Yet in this twisted wasteland – a country of mad dogs, of sweat and gore and blinding heat – the sheriffs play dirty too.Melding prose, poetry, imagined interviews and ephemeral photography, Ondaatje weaves together a lyrical reinterpretation of Billy’s short, infamous existence, forming a portrait of a young man, and a young country, borne out of violence, threaded through with disaster, yet rich in wonder. 
 
‘Ondaatje’s language is clean and energetic, with the pop of bullets. This is literature, art.’ Annie Dillard 
 
'Ondaatje’s eye for detail is wonderful and he uses it poetically, with superb restraint' Larry McMurtry

The Collected Works of Billy the Kid

Maria Ferguson

In the consultation room I stared 
at the purple flowers in their purple 
vase and imagined my insides: 
an ocean, a cave, a storm. 
 
Maria Ferguson’s second poetry collection is a raw and powerful documentation of one woman’s experience of becoming a mother. Against a backdrop of the sounds and sensations of daily life, she longs for her own mother's embrace, observes as her body changes and charts a course through loss and wilting house plants towards recovery, empowerment and renewal. 
 
Tender, direct and winningly witty, Swell distils the poet's complex feelings surrounding family and domesticity, exploring the contending weight and levity felt as she contemplates a thrillingly unfamiliar new chapter. Ferguson is a poet as alert to the absurd as to the shattering, and these are large-hearted poems, full of life and thought. Together, they invite the reader to join them in a search for self-acceptance, for freedom from shame and for a path to stability in increasingly uncertain times.

Swell

James Quinn

Two sitcom gems from the early 2000s featuring the achingly hip poet Sir Ralph Stanza, written by and starring James QuinnSir Ralph Stanza, a hip London poet, is determined to communicate the people's hopes and fears through his verse. Whether they like it or not&hellip;Sir Ralph Stanza&rsquo;s Letter from Salford follows the exploits of the distinguished-but-hip London poet Sir Ralph Stanza as he settles into his new role as the poet-in-residence for Salford. This is all thanks to a specially-funded scheme displaying great cultural magnanimity towards the good people of the north of England. As he straddles the streets of Orsdall and Weaste, in his panama hat, blazer and silk scarf, Sir Ralph's goal is to blend in with the locals and express their anger through his verse. He seeks his muse in a chip shop, has run-ins with &lsquo;the man&rsquo; and what says &lsquo;artistic climax&rsquo; more than bringing quiche to the Quays&hellip;?In The Jail Diaries of Sir Ralph Stanza our hero poet navigates his new role and incarcerated reality as poet-in-residence at a maximum security prison. Albie Sachs, Nelson Mandela, Jeffrey Archer... The literary penal tradition is an honourable one. It finally reaches its pinnacle with Sir Ralph Stanza, the poet dedicated to bringing culture to the masses, and gently explaining it to them. Sir Ralph shocks the prison authorities by doing a rap double act with inmate Jermaine leading to some far reaching and unexpected consequences&hellip;These comedy series about a poet with a passion feature a special guest appearance from none other than (actual) poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy. A perfect listen for anyone looking for the lighter side of life, culture and laughter. Cast and creditsWritten by James QuinnProduced by Graham FrostSir Ralph Stanza&rsquo;s Letters from SalfordStarring James Quinn 
With Alison Darling, Jack Deam, Mark Chatterton, Stephen Hoyle, Jemma Thompson, Tony Melody, Judy Flynn and Bob ChadwickAnd featuring Carol Ann Duffy First Broadcast BBC Radio 4, 15 May - 5 Jun 2002 (series 1), 30 Apr 2003 - 4 Jun 2003 (series 2)The Jail Diaries of Sir Ralph StanzaStarring James QuinnWith Chris Jack, James Scales, Lorraine Cheshire, Joan Kempson, Neil Bell, Theo Ant Smith First Broadcast BBC Radio 4, 18 Aug &ndash; 22 Sep 2004&copy;2024 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2024 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

The Exploits of Sir Ralph Stanza

A BBC Radio Comedy Collection

Robin Lane Fox

Homer's Iliad is the famous epic poem set among the tales of Troy. Its subject is the anger of the hero Achilles and its dreadful consequences for the warring Greeks and Trojans. It was composed more than 2,600 years ago, but still transfixes us with its tale of loss and battle, love and revenge, guided throughout by the active presence of the gods. Its beauty and profound bleakness are intensely moving but great questions remain: where, how and when it was composed and why it has such enduring power? 
 
In this compelling book Robin Lane Fox addresses these questions, drawing on a life-long love and engagement with the poem. He argues for a place, a date and a method for its composition, giving us a sense of alternative approaches and grounding his own in discoveries about long heroic poems composed elsewhere in the world, and the ever-growing evidence of archaeology. 
 
Unlike other books on the Iliad, this one combines the detailed expertise of a historian with the sensitivity of a teacher of it as poetry. Lane Fox goes on to consider hallmarks of the poem, its values, implicit and explicit, its characters, its women, its gods and even its horses. He argues repeatedly for its beautiful observation and addresses its parallel use of what is, to us, the natural world. Thousands of readers turn to the Iliad every year. In this superbly written and conceived tribute, Lane Fox expresses and amplifies what old and new readers can find in it. It is pervaded, he argues, by a poignant hardness which is not just a poetic trick. It is a deeply held view of the world.

Homer and His Iliad

Margaret Atwood

*A Times Literary Supplement and Financial Times Book of the Year 2024* 
 
An extraordinary career-spanning collection from one of the most revered poets and storytellers of our age 
 
Tracing the legacy of Margaret Atwood – a writer who has fundamentally shaped our contemporary literary landscapes – Paper Boat assembles Atwood’s most vital poems in one essential volume. 
 
In pieces that are at once brilliant, beautiful and hyper-imagined, Atwood gives voices to remarkably drawn characters – mythological figures, animals and everyday people – all of whom have something to say about what it means to live in a world as strange as our own. ‘How can one live with such a heart?’ Atwood asks, casting her singular spell upon the reader, and ferrying us through life, death and whatever comes next. Walking the tightrope between reality and fantasy as only she can, Atwood’s journey through poetry illuminates our most innate joys and sorrows, desires and fears. 
 
Spanning six decades of work – from her earliest beginnings to brand new poems – this volume charts the evolution of one of our most iconic and necessary authors. 
 
‘We should regard Atwood as a poet first and foremost – just one who happens to be a highly regarded novelist’ Sunday Herald

Paper Boat

New and Selected Poems 1961-2023

Lindsey Hilsum

I was standing outside an apartment block that had been split apart by a missile. The words of a poem came to me when I could no longer find my own. 
 
In nearly four decades as a journalist covering conflict from Palestine to Kosovo to Rwanda, Channel 4 News International Editor Lindsey Hilsum has always carried a book of poetry. It helps her make sense of the senseless, salve her soul as the world around her rages, and remember those she has met in the darkest of times. 
 
In Ukraine, she tweeted a poem a day, and people began to read, to share, to ask for more. Here, Lindsey collects her favourite poems from ancient times to modern, translated from different languages and by writers from all around the world. Alongside each, she recalls a memory from her own work, whether interviewing the warlords of Bosnia and Sudan, meeting child soldiers in Uganda or giving testimony about the genocide in Rwanda. Her prose reveals comic absurdity and astonishing courage, meaning and its absence, unexpected moments of love and the untold consequences that come long after most cameras disperse. She explores the pity of war – and its fatal attraction. 
 
Vital, authentic, a read like no other, this is the first account Lindsey has written of her experience, accompanied by the voices of poets through the ages who have fought, witnessed terror or fled their homes, yet found the words to capture their humanity.

I Brought the War with Me

Stories and Poems from the Front Line

Danez Smith

‘A writer who never loses their way’ New York Times 
 
A searing new collection from the Forward Prize-winning American poet about the year that the world’s gaze turned to Minneapolis – Smith's own home. 
 
Written after two years of artistic silence, during which the world came to a halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Minneapolis became the epicentre of protest following the murder of George Floyd, Bluff is Danez Smith’s powerful reckoning with their role and responsibility as a poet and with their hometown. This is a book of awakening out of violence, guilt, shame and critical pessimism to imagine how we can strive towards a new existence in a world that seems to be dissolving into desolate futures. 
 
Smith brings a startling urgency to these poems, their questions demanding a new language, a deep self-scrutiny and virtuosic textual shapes. A series of ars poetica gives way to ‘anti poetica’ and ‘ars america’ to implicate poetry’s collusions with unchecked capitalism. A brilliant long poem maps the history of Minneapolis-Saint Paul’s vibrant Rondo neighbourhood before and after officials decided to run an interstate directly through it. 
 
Bluff is a manifesto about artistic resilience when the places we most love – those given and made – are burning. In this collection, Smith turns to honesty, hope, rage and imagination to envision futures that seem possible. 
 
‘A poet of exceptional linguistic exuberance, style and grace’ Kayo Chingonyi 
 
‘Smith writes towards the abundant and the difficult and makes something that is rare – a piece of art that refuses self-consciousness and is exactly what it wants to be’ Raven Leilani on Homie

Bluff

A powerful new collection reckoning with America, protest and poetry itself

Olivia Gatwood

&lsquo;Yanked every emotion on the spectrum out of me&rsquo; JAMIE LOFTUS 
 
In this powerful, candid collection, Olivia Gatwood explores the trials and triumphs of growing up as a woman. 
 
She celebrates the teenage girl and the colour pink while questioning the role that fear and male violence play in who we are and what we become. These piercing poems are at times blistering and riotous, and at times soulful and exuberant. 
 
Balancing singularity of view with a sense of universal experience, Life of the Party is about the pain, the joy, the challenge, the reward of being a girl and a woman in today&rsquo;s world. 
 
&lsquo;Olivia Gatwood is a revolution of woman, a flurry of insight harnessing the language of self-assessment and acceptance&rsquo; MAHOGANY L. BROWNE 
 
&lsquo;Asks us to remember the stories of those most vulnerable, the women whose stories are too often ignored&rsquo; THEM.US 
 
 
&lsquo;An electrifying collection of poems about the agonies and ecstasies of being a young woman&rsquo; LEIGH STEIN

Life of the Party

If A Girl Screams, and Other Poems

Ruby Dhal

'A sanctuary of comfort and self-discovery' VEX KING 
 
Self-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.

The Path to Self-Love

Heal Your Heart, Set Healthy Boundaries & Unlock Your Inner Strength

Elaine Feeney

Elaine Feeney brings her poetry to Harvill Secker and Vintage with this powerful, personal, fierce collection about women's lives, bodies, battles and triumphs. 
 
From a searing meditation on the experience and aftershocks of a sexual assault - written as a series of unflinching cantos - to poems of love, place and new beginnings, Feeney's voice is strong and clear, challenging and confessional, rooted in her west coast of Ireland heritage while speaking to and with women everywhere.

All the Good Things You Deserve

Alfred Tennyson

A definitive collection of Tennyson&rsquo;s finest worksAlfred Lord Tennyson is one of Britain&rsquo;s greatest and most popular poets. Even during his lifetime, he was considered a national institution: Queen Victoria appointed him Poet Laureate in 1850, a position he held for 42 years, and in 1884 he became the first writer to be granted a baronetcy. In a long and fruitful career, he penned numerous classic works, and this BBC Radio collection showcases some of the very best.We begin with two of his masterpieces, dramatised by award-winning poet Michael Symmons Roberts. The Idylls of the King is an extraordinary epic poem that infuses the legend of King Arthur with a passionate intensity. Told here in five acts, it stars Tim Pigott-Smith. Considered one of the finest elegies, In Memoriam was written in response to the sudden death of his friend Arthur Hallam. This drama weaves the peerless poem into the story behind it, and stars Holliday Grainger, James Cooney and Ashley Margolis.Crossing the Bar plunges us into Tennyson&rsquo;s stirring sea-narratives, with sea-songs performed by a cappella trio Coope, Boyes and Simpson. It includes the poems &lsquo;The Kraken&rsquo;, &lsquo;The Sea Fairies&rsquo;, &lsquo;Enoch Arden&rsquo;, &lsquo;The Voyage of Maeldune&rsquo; and &lsquo;Crossing the Bar&rsquo; - read by John Dougall, Rachel Bavidge, Sam Dale, Jasmine Callan, Stuart McLoughlin and Joseph Kloska. 
 In Maud, Tennyson&rsquo;s dark, lyrical verses tell of a disturbed young man roaming the windswept hills, madly in love and haunted by loss. Dramatised for radio in 1969, Harold brings to life the story of England&rsquo;s last Anglo-Saxon King, starring Gabriel Woolf.Next up are readings of Tennyson&rsquo;s best-loved poems, including seven written in the language of his native Lincolnshire and introduced by his great-grandson Hallam Tennyson. &lsquo;Aylmer&rsquo;s Field&rsquo;, his Victorian version of the Romeo and Juliet story, is read by Andrew Sachs; while Peggy Ashcroft reads his celebrated lyrical ballad &lsquo;The Lady of Shalott&rsquo;. &lsquo;The Lotos-Eaters&rsquo;, inspired by the tale of Odysseus and his mariners, is read by Sir John Gielgud. &lsquo;The Northern Farmer&rsquo;, &lsquo;The Parson&rsquo;s Daughter&rsquo;, &lsquo;The Church Warden and the Curate&rsquo;, &lsquo;Owd Roa,&rsquo; &lsquo;The Village Wife&rsquo;, &lsquo;The Northern Cobbler&rsquo; and &lsquo;The Spinster&rsquo;s Sweet-Arts&rsquo; are read by Edward Campion and Mary Wimbush. Lastly, &lsquo;The Charge of the Light Brigade&rsquo; is read by Alfred Badel, and &lsquo;The Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington&rsquo;, read by the poet's grandson Sir Charles Tennyson.We conclude with a pair of fascinating documentaries exploring the poet&rsquo;s life and work. Searching for Alfred in the Shadow of Tennyson sees Ruth Padel investigating the man behind the image, while In Our Time: Tennyson&rsquo;s In Memoriam finds Melvyn Bragg discussing the poet&rsquo;s moving meditation on love and death.First published 1830 (&lsquo;The Kraken&rsquo;, &lsquo;The Sea-Fairies), 1832 (&lsquo;The Lady of Shalott&rsquo;, &lsquo;The Lotos-Eaters&rsquo;), 1833 (&lsquo;Fatima&rsquo;), 1850 (&lsquo;In Memoriam&rsquo;), 1852 (&lsquo;Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington&rsquo;), 1854 (&lsquo;The Charge of the Light Brigade&rsquo;), 1855 (&lsquo;Maud&rsquo;), 1859-1885 (Idylls of the King), 1864 (&lsquo;Enoch Arden&rsquo;, &lsquo;The Northern Farmer&rsquo;), 1876 (Harold), 1880 (&lsquo;The Voyage of Maeldune&rsquo;, &lsquo;The Village Wife&rsquo;, &lsquo;The Northern Cobbler&rsquo;), 1885 (&lsquo;The Spinster&rsquo;s Sweet-Arts&rsquo;), 1889 (&lsquo;Crossing the Bar&rsquo;, &lsquo;Owd Roa&rsquo;), 1891 (Alymer&rsquo;s Field), 1892 (&lsquo;The Church-Warden and the Curate&rsquo;)&copy; 2024 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2024 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Alfred Lord Tennyson: In Memoriam, Idylls of the King, Maud & more

A BBC Radio Collection

New collection of most popular and previously unpublished poems from Jessica Urlichs 
 
Motherhood is messy and beautiful, and hard and humbling. We adore our children and sometimes we miss ourselves. Beautiful Chaos is a collection of raw, honest poems about motherhood - capturing everything from pregnancy to school age. 
 
Upon becoming a mother, Jessica Urlichs was reminded that the everyday ordinary is extraordinary. As sacred and tender as early motherhood is, it also comes with its struggles. Beautiful Chaos is a collection that chronicles it all - the highs, the lows, the confusion, the loss of identity, the becoming, and the brutal but beautiful ways our children hold mirrors up to us. This collection inspires vulnerability and will be a cathartic, healing read for anyone who needs it. 
 
These poems will remind you of a time gone by or ground you in the current moment. Either way, they will make you feel seen and comforted amidst the beautiful chaos that is motherhood.

Beautiful Chaos

On Motherhood, Finding Yourself and Overwhelming Love

Amanda Gorman

The breakout poetry collection by Sunday Times bestselling author and presidential inaugural poet Amanda Gorman 
 
&lsquo;Poetry so alive you want to hold it and protect it&rsquo; Malala Yousafzai 
 
The luminous poetry collection captures a shipwrecked moment in time and transforms it into a lyric of hope and healing. In Call Us What We Carry, Gorman explores history, language, identity, and erasure through an imaginative and intimate collage. Harnessing the collective grief of a global pandemic, these poems shine a light on a moment of reckoning and reveal that Gorman has become our messenger from the past, our voice for the future. 
 
&lsquo;A new collection full of hope and healing from the young American poet who electrified the world&rsquo; Guardian 
 
&lsquo;Reading these poems, I feel at once haunted, heartened and formidably ministered to&rsquo; Tracy K. Smith 
 
&lsquo;The liberating force of the stories these poems tell about our resilience and survival showcases a powerful griot for our times&rsquo; Oprah Daily

Call Us What We Carry

From the presidential inaugural poet

Yomi Sode

In poems exploring family, survival, generational trauma and the complexities of belonging, Manorism is an examination of the lives of Black British men and boys. At the heart of the book is the ongoing pressure of code-switching - changing one's behaviour and language to suit radically different cultural contexts and environments. The violence of artists such as Caravaggio in seventeenth-century Rome and modern-day commentary by the likes of David Starkey and Piers Morgan provide a lens for considering differences of impunity afforded to white and Black people. Snippets of Yoruba interweave with English, and a moving final sequence - adapted for the Almeida stage in June 2021 to glowing reviews from the Guardian, Time Out and others - charts the dramatic reconciliations surrounding a death in the family. The result is a thrillingly original book that charts the vulnerabilities and rich nuances of Black masculinity in Britain.

Manorism

The year is 1Q84. This is the real world, there is no doubt about that. But in this world, there are two moons in the sky. Discover the 1Q84 Trilogy by Haruki Murakami.

1Q84

365 Days of Art

A BBC Christmas

A Black Book Thriller

A Box Full of Murders

A Cal Leandros Novel

A Christmas Mystery

The intelligent and capable police commissioner Guido Brunetti confronts crime in and around his home town of Venice.

A Commissario Brunetti Mystery

A DC Smith / Kings Lake Investigation Series

A Daisy Story

Chronicling the lives of over three hundred characters, unrivalled for its scope and humour, this is a unique evocation of life in twentieth-century England.

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