The word countryside conjures up all manner of landscapes. It can suggest woods or high moors, mountains or farmland, meadows or gentle chalk hills. In fact, the countryside is everything that isn’t town or city, which is probably why we’re so drawn to it. These poems selected by Irish poet Seán Hewitt explore the countryside in all this variety. There are moments of pure rhapsody with larks singing overhead, alongside encounters with bad weather and poor soil to remind us that it’s not all bliss and beauty. Together the poems capture the consoling rhythms of the seasons as they are played out in our rural landscapes: “for as earth Rolls on her journey, so her little fields Ripen or sleep…” from ‘The Land’ by Vita Sackville-West. Whatever countryside suggests to you, we’re sure you’ll be delighted by this beguiling selection. Poems by Kayo Chingonyi, John Clare, Helen Dunmore, WD Ehrhart, Vona Groarke, Jen Hadfield, Seán Hewitt, Claude McKay, Vita Sackville-West and Sara Teasdale.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 20

Dimensions: 137 x 210 mm

Publication Date: 01-07-2021

The British archipelago has over 7,000 miles of coastline – everything from limestone cliffs to muddy estuaries and from sand dunes to saltmarshes. These landscapes – and others far beyond – are reflected in these glorious poems. We find mudflats and wild Scottish shorelines, along with a ballad celebrating the shingle of a Suffolk beach where: “The shelving’s steep With stones to skim As if they’d feet To hop and skip Across the deep…” from ‘The Ballad of Shingle Street’ by Blake Morrison. Everywhere, there’s a sense that we go to the land’s edge to escape the hurly-burly of our daily lives. Being close to the ocean is “as near as we come to another world” as Anne Stevenson says in her paean to the North Sea. Poems by Matthew Arnold, Miriam Darlington, Helen Dunmore, Jen Hadfield, Kathleen Jamie, Blake Morrison, Kenneth Steven, Anne Stevenson, Giles Watson and Derek Walcott.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 24

Dimensions: 137 x 210 mm

Publication Date: 01-06-2022

In this wonderful mini-anthology of poems celebrating brothers (a companion to Ten Poems about Sisters) we meet brothers of all ages and of all shapes and sizes, including the brother who: “has made, out of petrol and hormones, a little world for himself, a paradise of hang-gliders and cars;” from ‘My Lost Brother’ by Ben Scammell. There’s also a young brother who loves riding down the stairs on a tea-tray and teenage brothers who are so alike they even smell the same. There are brothers who grow up and disappear into a new life, living on vividly in the memories of those left behind. The relationship with a brother can be a complex one, and these poems explore those joys and challenges in fascinating ways. But most of all they reflect the abiding love we feel for a brother and show how this can enrich a life. Poems by Matthew Dickman, Jonathan Edwards, Lavina Greenlaw, Joanne Limburg, Hannah Lowe, Rebecca McClanahan, Rob Miles, Mary O’Donnell, Ben Scammell and Floyd Skloot.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 20

Dimensions: 137 x 210 mm

Publication Date: 01-10-2017

Where would we be without families, to lift us up and love us, to make us who we are? This anthology celebrates all of the humour and warmth, the strength and joy, that families bring us. We meet a doting grandfather who makes a car out of sand for his granddaughter on the beach, spend time at a ghostly Christmas family gathering, even hear of a little girl who keeps playing the video of a sister’s birth on rewind. Elsewhere, writers reflect on the way family links us across history: “I want to enter the picture, slip myself into 1903, climb into the dresses and sit on the porch, become each woman, touch the baby, find the unborn daughter I will be.” from ‘Generation’ by Cathy Stern. This charming, moving selection of poems explores the many things that ‘family’ can mean, in lines which, like families, offer us cuddles and giggles, personality and love. Poems by Fleur Adcock, Jeanette Burton, Jonathan Edwards, Jackie Kay, Vanessa Lampert, John McCullough, Sinéad Morrissey, Cathy Stern, RS Thomas and Marvin Thompson.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 24

Dimensions: 137 x 210 mm

Publication Date: 01-10-2022

Most of us live in cities, and there is a rich tradition of poems about their tireless hustle and bustle. In Jessica Mookherjee’s lively selection, we find poems that explore the hectic rhythms of day-to-day life in a city, as well as the rather more mysterious character of a city at night – a place where streetlights and “drunken rooftops” create a dreamscape in which anything might happen. Ever present is the sense that a city never stops: "All afternoon labouring geese fly over the city. Cars hoot, sirens fugue. Beneath bank towers, a statue shifts. A man, blue clown, blows two-note whistles for a living.” from ‘Commerce, Madrid, 2012’ by Carola Luther This mini-anthology transports us to cities real and imagined in a delightful kaleidoscope that shimmers and shifts at each rereading. Poems by Suzannah Evans, Andrew Fusek-Peters, Kapka Kassabova, Carola Luther, John McCullough, Jessica Mookherjee, Meryl Pugh, Roger Robinson, James Tate and Sara Teasdale.

Bind: stationery

Pages: 20

Dimensions: 137 x 210 mm

Publication Date: 29-03-2024

Libraries are treasured places. We may remember visiting a local library in childhood to explore an early delight in reading. Or perhaps we have come to value them in later life, as a calm sanctuary where we can daydream among beloved books. A library is also a portal into countless worlds of knowledge, experience and adventure: “Oh, I could walk any aisle and smell wisdom, put a hand out to touch the rough curve of bound leather, the harsh parchment of dreams.” from ‘Maple Valley Branch Library, 1967’ by Rita Dove With irresistible affection, these poems celebrate the many things that libraries mean to us as we move through the phases of our lives. The poems are selected and introduced by poet Lorraine Mariner who has worked at the National Poetry Library in London for many years. Poems by Adrian Buckner, Louise Chandler Moulton, Claire Crowther, Rita Dove, Martina Evans, Edward Hirsch, Lorraine Mariner, Ian McMillan, Charles Simic and Indigo Williams.

Bind: stationery

Pages: 24

Dimensions: 137 x 210 mm

Publication Date: 31-01-2024

Most of us can remember our first kiss, whether it was glorious and transporting or merely awkward. Kissing, it transpires, can happen anywhere – on a train, in a city park or against a kitchen fridge. The poems dramatise the fact that a kiss can make time stand still or send us into a dizzy spin: "And the world all whirling Round in joy Like the dance of a dervish..." from "Kisses in the Train" by DH Lawrence The selection wouldn’t be complete without a sly antidote to all this romance, which is why we’ve included Mary Ruefle’s ‘Why I Am Not A Good Kisser’ with its inventory of things not to do or think about when a kiss is in the offing. Poems by Kim Addonizio, Marjorie Allen Seiffert, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert Burns, William Drummond of Hawthornden, Hattie Grünewald, DH Lawrence, Roddy Lumsden, David Mills, Shazea Quraishi, Mary Ruefle, Roberta Spear, Sara Teasdale and Jean Toomer.

Bind: stationery

Pages: 24

Dimensions: 137 x 210 mm

Publication Date: 31-01-2024

This mini anthology is a celebration of the rich variety of ways in which we get ourselves from A to B. A long distance walk, a bike ride, a boat trip – all are here in language that captures the thrill of being en route. We meet cyclists pedalling with panniers around eastern France. Then there’s a rowdy train journey from Barrow to Sheffield; the passengers may be raucous but what is relished is the train’s “relentless pressing on”. Sheenagh Pugh’s poem wonders what might happen if a road had a mind of its own. Then again: “Who wants to know a story’s end, or where a road will go?” from ‘What if this road’ by Sheenagh Pugh Whether you’re a seasoned explorer or an armchair traveller, these poems offer the delight and excitement of being on the way to somewhere else. Poems by Jean Atkin, Jo Bell, Geoffrey Chaucer, David Constantine, John Foggin, Norman MacCaig, Michael McCarthy, Kim Moore, Sheenagh Pugh and Rabindranath Tagore.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 24

Dimensions: 163 x 217 mm

Publication Date: 01-08-2022

A sister often knows us better than anyone. This selection of poems (a companion to Ten Poems about Brothers) explores that special relationship – from the games and secrets of early childhood that we remember so vividly to the separate journeys of later life. For Dorothea Smartt, two sisters form a pair of carefree ‘toe-tapping feet’ while Jean Tepperman’s depiction of sisterhood celebrates the thrill of defying convention. In Galway Kinnell’s moving poem a childhood shared with a sibling creates a reassuring lifelong bond: “…we will walk hand in hand a little while, taking the laughter of childhood as far as we can into the days to come,” from ‘Two Set Out On Their Journey’ by Galway Kinnell. Most of all, these poems remind us of that life is enlivened and enriched by having a sister. Never coy or timid, they are sure to provoke discussion – and hopefully many lively family conversations! Poems by Julia Bird, Wendy Cope, Michael Donaghy, Galway Kinnell, Esther Morgan, PK Page, Dorothea Smartt, Jean Tepperman, Jack Underwood and Julia Webb.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 20

Dimensions: 137 x 210 mm

Publication Date: 01-10-2017

This wonderful mini-anthology of poems is a celebration of the many ways in which mothers are important in our lives. We meet the bedtime-story-reading mother with her special bedtime story voice, and the mother who loves to cook with fruit and vegetables from her patch at the bottom of the garden. Then there’s the elderly mother who can still manage a couple of “quick two minute waltzes” to Abba or Queen when her son comes to visit. This mother’s relationship with her son is complex, but nevertheless there is love. There are also poems that celebrate the precious memories we hold after our mothers are no longer with us. When a man hears a woman singing he is transported back: “To the old Sunday evenings at home, with winter outside And hymns in the cosy parlour, the tinkling piano our guide.” from ‘Piano’ by DH Lawrence. These poems will make you laugh and cry – and sometimes both. Poems by Fleur Adcock, Mona Arshi, Gillian Clarke, Maura Dooley, Jonathan Edwards, Jackie Kay, DH Lawrence, James Reeves, John Siddique and Benjamin Zephaniah.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 24

Dimensions: 137 x 210 mm

Publication Date: 01-01-2011