Michael Symmons Roberts’s fourth book of poetry, Corpus, was the winner of the 2004 Whitbread Poetry Award, and was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize, the Forward Prize, and the Griffin International Prize. His sixth collection, Drysalter, was the winner of both the Forward Prize and the Costa Poetry Prize in 2013. He collaborated with Paul Farley on Edgelands (Cape/Vintage) and will do so again in The Deaths of the Poets (Cape, 2017). He has also worked many times with the composer James MacMillan. He has published two novels, and is Professor of Poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Michael Symmons Roberts

PublicationStatus

Brand

Format

AgeRange

Series

Imprint

CategoryLabel

The White Pube

Gabrielle de la Puente

Zarina Muhammad

At a moment in which working as a professional artist is an increasingly unattainable luxury, art criticism duo The White Pube investigate why so many artists try anyway. Labelled “the Diet Prada of the art world” by British Vogue, in Poor Artists writers Gabrielle de la Puente and Zarina Muhammad ridicule a contemporary art world that has turned art into artworks, art schools into art universities, and creative expression into cut-throat competition. 
 
Poor Artists follows aspiring artist Quest Talukdar as she embarks on a surreal journey into the creative industry, where she must decide whether she cares more about success or staying true to herself. Featuring dialogue from anonymous interviews with real people who have all had to ask themselves the same question – including a Turner Prize winner or two, a recluse, a Venice Biennale fraudster, a communist messiah, a ghost, and a literal knight – The White Pube tell the story of art like never before.

Poor Artists

James Read

James Read is on a mission to smuggle bacteria into our kitchens. In Of Cabbages & Kimchi, he takes the ten greatest 'living' ferments - fermented foods that are neither cooked nor pasteurized - and places them under the microscope, before cooking with them in all their delicious versatility. 
 
From the fiery funk of kimchi to the velvet tang of kefir, James describes the microbial process, then shares his recipes for recreating these wonders in your own kitchen - no specialist equipment required. Alongside his recipes, James investigates the extraordinary cultural and historic backgrounds of fermented foods, exploring how the microbes that bring them to life have developed alongside our culinary evolution. 
 
Featuring over fifty recipes - including Mushroom and Sauerkraut Pierogi, Chilled Radish Noodle Soup and Green Chilli Fermented Salsa - and packed to the brim with Marija Tiurina's gastro-surrealist watercolour illustrations, Of Cabbages and Kimchi will help you create, understand and appreciate fermentation's bubbling magic.

Of Cabbages and Kimchi

A Practical Guide to the World of Fermented Food

Gemma Correll

Come and join us in the magical world of Anxietyland, a theme park like no other. Here, there's so much to see and do: revel in the ups and downs of the Hormonal Rollercoaster, feel the twists and turns of the Overcaffeinated Teacups, and take a scenic ride on the Train of Overthinking to Comorbid Park. There's no better place for making new friends such as our fun mascot Scaredy Cat, enjoying world-class entertainment, from the Parade of the Therapists to the Well-Meaning Advice Jamboree, and making memories that you'll never forget - even if you want to! 
 
In Anxietyland cartoonist, writer, and long-time-anxious-person, Gemma Correll takes us on a riotous journey through her struggles with anxiety, to the desperate search for relief and finally to the realization that it really is possible to feel OK again. Because sometimes all that's left to do when you've tried every possible remedy you can imagine is laugh.

Anxietyland

Jean-Marc Jancovici

Christophe Blain

THE #1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER 
*A Financial Times Most Anticipated Book of 2024* 
 
“Can a graphic novel save the planet? Perhaps.” – Elizabeth Kolbert 
 
Is this the end of the world? Perhaps not. 
 
In this eye-opening, hopeful and hugely entertaining bestseller, a climate expert takes a leading graphic novelist on a journey to understand the profound changes that our planet is undergoing. The scientist, Jean-Marc Jancovici, walks us through just about everything: from the innermost workings of our minds to toothbrushes, office jobs, and oil; ancient history and modern geopolitics; economics and ecology; the unfolding climate crisis and its consequences for us all. As he describes the world we live in - a world whose future is deeply uncertain - the artist, Christophe Blain, listens and draws. 
 
Coming face to face with global warming, the unlikely duo - along with Mother Nature, Pop Eye and Jiminy Cricket, among others - create a picture of what the solution to our predicament actually looks like. Yes, we have a fossil-fuel problem, but simply switching to renewable energy won’t fix it. We can and must rethink everything: our energy supply, our economies and our whole world. They leave us with an inspiring vision of the future in which food, education, housing, transport and communities - in other words, all of us - work together and, with a few technological fixes, succeed in creating a world without end. 
 
“Masterful and unforgettable... A testament to the power of the graphic novel" - Marjane Satrapi, author of Persepolis 
 
“READ. THIS. BOOK.”- Eliza Griswold, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist 
 
 
Over 1 million copies sold since publication, The Guardian, October 2024

World Without End

Paul Kingsnorth

In Against the Machine, “furiously gifted” (The Washington Post) novelist, poet, and essayist Paul Kingsnorth presents a wholly original—and terrifying—account of the technological-cultural matrix enveloping all of us. With insight into the spiritual and economic roots of techno-capitalism, Kingsnorth reveals how the Machine, in the name of progress, has choked Western civilization, is destroying the Earth itself, and is reshaping us in its image. From the First Industrial Revolution to the rise of artificial intelligence, he shows how the hollowing out of humanity has been a long game—and how your very soul is at stake. 
 
It takes effort to remain truly human in the age of the Machine. Here Kingsnorth reminds us what humanity requires: a healthy suspicion of entrenched power; connection to land, nature and heritage; and a deep attention to matters of the spirit. Prophetic and poetic, Against the Machine is a spiritual manual for dissidents in the technological age.

Against the Machine

On the Unmaking of Humanity

Elena Favilli

Francesca Cavallo

Based on the phenomenal bestseller Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls, this set of postcards celebrates some of the most inspiring heroes, from Malala and Michelle Obama to Ada Lovelace and Zaha Hadid. Beautifully designed, these are postcards that will inspire generations with the extraordinary stories of fifty women who have changed the world. With a short bio of the woman on each card and powerful quotes, this is a perfect gift for all the rebels in your life. 
 
The rebels include: 
 
Creators: Frida Kahlo, The Brontë Sisters, Julia Child, Nina Simone, Zaha Hadid, Xian Zhang, Ada Lovelace, Maud Stevens Wagner, Maria Callas, and Millo Castro Zaldarriaga 
 
Leaders: Queen Elizabeth I, Fadumo Dayib, Yaa Asantewaa, Jingu, Hatshepsut, Nanny of the Maroons, Lakshmi Bai, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Michelle Obama, and Eufrosina Cruz 
 
Pioneers: Sylvia Earle, Ann Makosinski, Jane Goodall, Alek Wek, Maria Sibylla Merian, Balkissa Chaibou, Wang Zhenyi, Mae C. Jemison, Cholita Climbers, and Maria Reiche 
 
Champions: Yursa Mardini, Maya Gabeira, Wilma Rudolph, Serena and Venus Williams, Mary Kom, Alfonsina Strada, Amna Al Haddad, Misty Copeland, Simone Biles, and Ashley Fiolek 
 
Warriors: Sonita Alizadeh, Claudia Ruggerini, Malala Yousafzai, Manal Al-Sharif, Maya Angelou, Rosa Parks, Anna Politkovskaya, Harriet Tubman, Miriam Makeba, and Irena Sendlerowa

Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls: 50 Postcards

Lea Korsgaard

In the darkness of winter on the first day of the year, a woman in Denmark is making a list. She plans to set out and see all of the country's butterfly species in a single year. She knows nothing about butterflies. She doesn’t even know why she wants to see them. She just knows that something is calling her. The pull is irresistible. 
 
The Butterfly Season tells the story of what happened next. We follow Lea Korsgaard as her list takes her to landscapes she never knew existed, shaped by the wind and by the sea. She walks on ancient seabeds and hills made of algae shells. She is led to secret places by strangers who offer their help along the way. And she is led into the past; into the lives of her ancestors, and into the world of books, philosophy and mythology. Because ever since humans started thinking about the meaning of life and death, the butterfly has symbolized our hope of rebirth—and confronted us with the biggest questions of existence: Why do we live? And what are we living for?

The Butterfly Season

Nora Krug

Immediately following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Nora Krug connected with two anonymous subjects - 'K.', a Ukrainian journalist, and 'D.', a Russian artist - and began what would become a year of correspondence. Deeply moved by the rawness of their responses, she felt that through the personal accounts of these individuals who, directly and indirectly, experienced the war firsthand, she might be able to communicate something of the war and its human impact. Over the course of the next twelve months she communicated with each of them individually via phone chat, condensing their sometimes fluid, sometimes fragmentary answers into a consistent narrative and then created illustrations to go with each entry. The personal accounts contained in this book chronicle the first year of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in an intimate, epistolary format. 
 
Diaries of War explores the personal, the political, conflict, family and daily life under war with immense skill, compassion and moving thoughtfulness. Through these two individuals we see the granular effects of war on two lives, but they are emblematic of millions. Diaries of War is a harrowing record of a heart-wrenching historical event that has devastated the world and continues to alter countless lives.

Diaries of War

Two Visual Accounts from Ukraine and Russia

John Yorke

To command narrative is to control a sometimes frightening power. What is it that turbocharges some tales, and how is it possible to harness that potency? 
 
John Yorke’s groundbreaking bestseller, Into the Woods, revolutionised our understanding of story structure. This new book delves deeper into how to put that structure to work in the world. Trip to the Moon takes us on a journey not just through drama and fiction but through politics, religion and non-western narrative. Through these terrains, Yorke seeks out the role of story in all our lives, examining how to utilise its lessons to create life-changing tales – and, in a world aflame with conspiracy theories, to guard ourselves against their darker purpose too. 
 
Revealing the artful symmetry and underlying principles that connect Summer beach reads to Classical Chinese poetry, superhero flicks to Russian arthouse, and classical rhetoric to state propaganda, Yorke makes dazzling connections that show how stories have the power to transfigure the chaos of our existence into a new equilibrium, and make the world anew.

Trip to the Moon

Understanding the True Power Of Story

The Friends of Attention

We all feel it: something is seriously wrong. Our attention—that essential ability to give our minds and senses to the world—is being trapped, gutted, and sold out from under us by an industry of immense technological and financial power. The heedless exploitation of this vital capacity by a handful of tech companies is harming us all, reducing our very selfhood to that which can be quantified, bought, and sold—and shaking the foundations of our democracy. 
 
To push back against this 'human fracking,”'we need more than individual willpower or isolated efforts. We need a movement of collective resistance. Such a movement is beginning to bloom, and in this radical, first-of-its-kind guide, The Friends of Attention show us how to join the fight. We meet welders, nurses, poets, and surfers, all of whom are engaged in attentional practices. We learn to seek out sanctuaries—theatres and museums, houses of worship, dance parties—where together we can take refuge from the frackers. Drawing on a rich legacy of critical intellectuals and the creative wisdom of diverse traditions, Attensity! takes our apocalyptic present, turns it on its head, and reveals new vistas of human flourishing.

Attensity!

A Manifesto of the Attention Liberation Movement

Jay Heinrichs

Rhetoric once sat at the centre of elite education. Alexander the Great, Shakespeare and Martin Luther King, Jr. used it to build empires, write deathless literature and inspire democracies. Here, Heinrichs shows us how these persuasive tools, invented by the likes of Aristotle and Cicero, and honed over more than three thousand years, can sway your most difficult audience: yourself. 
 
Illustrated with examples from history and pop culture – Winston Churchill, Iron Man, Dolly Parton, and the woman who serendipitously invented the chocolate chip cookie – Aristotle’s Guide to Self-Persuasion tests the tools of persuasion and asks: Can the same techniques that seduce lovers, sell diet books and overturn governments help us achieve our most desired goals? 
 
Filled with entertaining and scientific studies that showcase the life-changing power of language, Aristotle's Guide to Self-Persuasion will teach you how to be the most successful person you can be, just by talking to yourself.

Aristotle's Guide to Self-Persuasion

How Ancient Rhetoric Can Help You Change Your Life

Luke Edward Hall

Seán Hewitt

For centuries, evidence of queer love in the ancient world was ignored or suppressed. Even today, only a few, famous narratives are widely known - yet there's a rich literary tradition of Greek and Roman love that extends far beyond this handful of stories. Here, the poet Seán Hewitt and painter Luke Edward Hall collect together, for the first time, forty of the most exhilarating queer tales in the classical canon and bring them newly to life. A ground-breaking anthology that changes the way we see the ancient world - and invites us to reflect on the puritanism of our own - 300,000 Kisses is a riotous celebration of desire in all its forms.

300,000 Kisses

Tales of Queer Love from the Ancient World

Marie Mitchell

WINNER OF THE FORTNUM AND MASON DEBUT COOKERY BOOK AWARD 
 
'Recreate vibrant, playful and expertly balanced dishes that are bursting with flavour and steeped in legacy - an instant modern classic' Jamie Oliver Cookery School 
 
‘A beautiful, familiar and comforting cookbook … I can’t wait to buy it for everyone I know’ Candice Carty-Williams 
 
‘An outstanding gem of a book – vibrant, exciting and full of modern twists’ Ixta Belfrage 
 
As the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, Marie Mitchell's cooking is motivated by a powerful desire to understand and celebrate those recipes that have been passed down from generation to generation. In Kin, her hotly anticipated debut cookbook, she shares dishes from the Caribbean and its diaspora, exploring the connection food can foster between different times and different places, and between friends, families and strangers. 
 
Accompanied by gorgeous photographs, many of them shot on location in the Caribbean, the book's eighty recipes - which include crispy saltfish fritters, rich and tempting aubergine curry, slow cooked jerk pork, zingy lime and ginger cheesecake and sweet Guinness punch - confound the widespread misconceptions about Caribbean food that abound in the West, which draw on stereotypes of intense heat, pungent smoke and a handful of familiar dishes. But while chilli is certainly a key ingredient and cooking over fire has a long and storied history, Caribbean cookery is also subtle and playful, layering different notes and spices carefully to create delicate, rewarding flavours. 
 
Crackling with energy and heart, Kin is a love letter to Marie's Caribbean identity, a journey through the region's myriad food cultures and a tribute to this most resourceful, resilient and joyous of cuisines. Here, Caribbean food emerges as one of the first truly global cuisines, borne out of the violent convergence of African, American, European and South Asian cultures in the long, troubling history of empire and emancipation, its legacy preserved - and, ultimately, transformed - by the kinship of those who share food.

Showing results for: ‘Michael Symmons Roberts’

Filters

Category

Publication Date

Format

Imprint

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter