Poetry Book Society

A favourite uncle can be great fun and how wonderful to be able to give a book of poetry to him at Christmas or to mark a birthday, especially if he has not read a great deal of poetry since he was in short trousers. Refresh his poetic memory and sensibility with one of the selection below, memory-jerkers as well as great starting points for the poetry innocent.


A Poet's Guide to Britain, ed Owen Sheers, Penguin Classics, (ISBN 9780141192840), Paperback, £10.99

Sheers has collected poems that evoke qualities of the six varieties of British landscape - London and Cities, Villages and Towns, Mountains and Moorland, Islands, Woods and Forest, and Coast and Sea. The anthology follows a similar format to the BBC series, but is supplemented by Sheers' own personal favourites.


Here to Eternity, ed. Andrew Motion, Faber & Faber, (ISBN 9780571215652), Paperback, £9.99

The former Poet Laureate has compiled an extraordinary range of poems, exemplifying his belief that poetry has a unique power to enrich our lives as it diversifies them. The poems are arranged in a series of ten concentric rings: Self, Home, Town, Work, Land, Love, Travel, War, Belief and Space.


The Great Modern Poets: An Anthology of the Best Poets and Poetry Since 1900, ed. Michael Schmidt, Quercus, (ISBN 9780857382467), Hardback, £14.99

A brilliant introduction to the best 20th century poetry, this beautifully illustrated book is accompanied by a CD featuring original recordings of 29 poems read by their authors, including WB Yeats reading 'The Lake Isle of Innisfree' and TS Eliot reading 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock'. The book contains 150 poems, introductory quotations, a biography of the poets, a selection of their key poems and simple explanations of the themes.


The Nation's Favourite: Comic Poems: A Selection of Humorous Verse, ed. Griff Rhys Jones, BBC Books, (ISBN 9780563384519), Paperback, £7.99

A brilliant, rib-tickling anthology of the nation's most cherished comic verse bringing together a diverse range of poets from Shakespeare to Keats and Benjamin Zephaniah.


The Rattle Bag, ed. Ted Hughes and Seamus Heaney, Faber& Faber, (ISBN 9780571225835), Paperback, £14.99

Conceived initially as a collection of its editors' favourite poems, The Rattle Bag has evolved into one of the classic poetry anthologies. The selection ranges from undisputed classics to rare treasures, as well as drawing on works in translation and traditional poems from oral cultures.


More in this series:

Poetry Books for... All Occasions

Poetry Books for... Weddings

Poetry Books for... Funerals

Poetry Books for... Valentine's Day

Poetry Books for... Christmas

Poetry Books for... Lovers

Poetry Books for... Faithful Friends

Poetry Books for... Marvellous Mums

Poetry Books for... Doting Dads

Poetry Books for... Awesome Aunts

Poetry Books for... Graceful Grannies

Poetry Books for... Grumpy Grandads

Poetry Books for... Boys

Poetry Books for... Girls

Poetry Books for... Tiny Terrors