Poetry Book Society

Poetry Books for... Awesome Aunts

A much-loved aunt deserves the very best. The books below are varied in style and content and hopefully there is one there to suit your very own favourite aunt, whether it's the joyful poetry of Heaven on Earth or the women-focused poems form hundreds of years ago featured in An Anthology of Ancient and Medieval Women's Songs.

An Anthology of Ancient and Medieval Women's Songs, Ed. Anne L Klink, Palgrave Macmillan, (ISBN 9781403963109), Paperback, £26

An unusual collection of poems focusing on women's point of view in love poetry, juxtaposing poems by women and poems about women. Poetry from ancient Greece and Rome is also included and readers will enjoy a range of disparate voices that often echo similar themes as women rejoice, lament, praise, condemn, plead, curse and joke to men and to each other about love.

Hard Times Require Furious Dancing: New Poems, by Alice Walker, New World Library, (ISBN 9781577319306), Hardback, £16.99

In this marvellous collection of poems, composed over the course of one year, the author of The Colour Purple responds to joy and sorrow both personal and global: the death of loved ones, war, the deliciousness of love, environmental devastation, the sorrow of rejection, greed, poverty and the sweetness of home.

Heaven on Earth: 101 Happy Poems, ed. Wendy Cope, Faber & Faber, (ISBN 9780571207060), Paperback, £8.99

A wonderfully upbeat, exuberant anthology of unashamedly happy poems. There are poems about love, places, the beauty of the natural world, about company and solitude, music, food and drink, books, and the unadulterated pleasure of taking a shower. Catullus, Chaucer, Clare, Dickinson, Betjeman and Larkin are among the poets whose work is featured

Of Mutability, by Jo Shapcott, Faber & Faber, (ISBN 9780571254705), Hardback, £12.99

In a sequence of witty and arresting poems Costa Award-winning poet Jo Shapcott explores the nature of change in the body, in the natural world and in the ever-changing pattern of human relationships. A memorable and bold collection.

Poetry on a Plate: A feast of poems and recipes, ed. the Poetry Society, Salt Publishing, (ISBN 9781844710768), Paperback, £7.99

A book published to celebrate the Poetry Society's National Poetry Day celebrations, Poetry on a Plate contains mouth-watering recipes by chefs and food writers, including Tony Singh, Frances Bissell, Mary Berry and Anton Edelmann, combined with a delicious assortment of poems by poets both contemporary and classic.

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Poetry Books for... Awesome Aunts