Poetry, Anthology & Annuals

From John Agard and Julia Donaldson to Nikita Gill, Brian Bilston and Carol Ann Duffy, The Big Amazing Poetry Book is a brilliant, accessible introduction to poetry and to fifty-two fantastic poets. Introduced by Roger McGough, the book features the illustrations of 2015–2017 Children's Laureate and beloved author of the Goth Girl and Ottoline series, Chris Riddell. A warm, funny collection, this book is packed with many different styles of poetry – ballads, riddles, tongue-twisters, shape poems, haikus, sonnets and raps – about seasons, festivals, animals, birds, love, war, food, fish and football and much more. Each poet is showcased with seven of their poems alongside a biography to give exciting, engaging context to their work – plus a stunning line artwork on every page. A must have for any young readers, The Big Amazing Poetry Book primarily features work from twentieth and twenty-first century poets. Included are John Agard, Brian Bilston, Lewis Carroll, Joseph Coelho, Julia Donaldson, Carol Ann Duffy, Nikita Gill, Jackie Kay, Roger McGough – and many more.

Julia Donaldson celebrates her readers in this delightful and imaginative picture book, inspired by the children she has met at hundreds of book signings over the years. I've signed for boys called Romeo and girls called Juliet . I've signed for Roman, Saxon, Dane- Though not for Norman yet. From months of the year, colours, flowers, food and gemstones, Julia has seamlessly grouped together a charming selection of children's names and woven them together in her unmistakable rhyming style. Set in a magical transforming bookshop, Julia Donaldson's Book of Names is a love letter to the world of books and young bookworms – illustrated by the award-winning Nila Aye. Readers will enjoy trying to find their own name, and even if it isn't included, there is a special dedicated space for them to add it, or even better, for Julia to sign!

Discover the beauty and wonder of trees in this stunningly illustrated collection of poetry and stories celebrating trees and what they mean to the world around us . . . Inspired by the woods around his home, the mighty forests that support our life on Earth, and the Ted Hughes poem which gives this book its title, My Heart Was a Tree is a celebration, and Sir Michael Morpurgo's love letter to trees. There are stories from an ancient olive remembering Odysseus and Penelope, and from a eucalyptus that gave shelter to a koala; from a piece of driftwood that was made into a chair, and from a tiny sapling carried by a refugee as a reminder of home – these are poems and stories that will amuse, move and energise families and readers of all ages to appreciate the beauty and wonder of trees.

bissett’s latest book marks some significant boundaries, draws some sharp, clear lines for this veteran of the evolving phonetic alphabet, and of sound, concrete and performance poetry. While the work remains overwhelmingly playful, subtly layered, and full of the astonishment and sheer delight at seeing and hearing things one has never quite thought of the way the poet/performer imagines them before, there is a new edginess to this work that will shake up both old fans and new readers of what can only be called the unique bill bissett experience in language. These new sharper edges come, quite generously, from the poet’s own re-assesment of where the self ends, and the other begins, and a growing recognition that those boundaries often need to be imposed, and defended, if destructive relationships of co-dependency are to be avoided. bissett’s usual biting, acute, often deliciously comic interrogation of the socio-political events towering around us like so many boxes we need constantly to think, feel and imagine our way out of, is counterposed in this collection by a recurring dream of a future wherein 20 billion people are locked in a global war on the poisoned surface of the planet while a small minority of peace-loving libertarians have garrisoned themselves into a scanner-protected, completely virtualized underground. While the Bill Gates compound reference of this recurring nightmare is inescapable, the text remains profoundly ambivalent about where one might be better off. There’s just a touch of scariness here in bissett’s latest exuberant rage through the urban wilderness of our time.

In Poems to Live Your Life By, Chris Riddell, political cartoonist for the Observer, has selected his very favourite classic and modern poems about life, death and everything in between. This gorgeously illustrated collection includes forty-six poems and is divided into sections covering: musings, youth, family, love, imaginings, nature, war and endings. Chris Riddell brings them to life with his exquisite, intricate artwork in this beautiful anthology. This book features famous poems, old and new, and a few surprises. Classic verses from William Shakespeare, Lewis Carroll, W. B. Yeats and Christina Rossetti sit alongside poems from Nick Cave, Leonard Cohen, Carol Ann Duffy, Neil Gaiman and Roger McGough to create the ultimate collection.