Literature & Poetry

In this series, a contemporary poet advocates a poet of the past or present whom they have particularly admired. By their selection of verses and by the personal and critical reactions they express, the selectors offer intriguing insight into their own work.

A reissue of Paulin's "corrosive and uproarious litany of bad sex, bad politics and bad religion" from the 1980s.

A detailed working through of the impact of the political theory and practise of contemporary antiracism in Britain in a selection of novels by black British and British Asian writers.

The first great adventure story in the Western canon, The Odyssey is a poem about violence and the aftermath of war; about wealth, poverty and power; about marriage, family and identity; and about travellers, hospitality and the changing meanings of home in a strange world.

This book salutes all of the cats and dogs, ravens and budgerigars, monkeys and guinea pigs, wombats, turtles, and two laughing jackasses, who enriched the lives of their masters and mistresses, sat on their keyboards, slept in their beds, and occasionally provided the creative spark for their stories and poems.

Mindful poems about tolerance, justice and hope for the Alice Walker, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Color Purple.

Set in the days of the Empire, with the British ruling in Burma, Orwell's book describes corruption and imperial bigotry. Flory, a white timber merchant, befriends Dr Veraswami, a black enthusiast for the Empire, whose downfall can only be prevented by membership at an all-white club.

Keep the Aspidistra Flying, first published in 1936, is a socially critical novel by George Orwell. It is set in 1930s London. The main theme is Gordon Comstock's romantic ambition to defy worship of the money-god and status, and the dismal life that results.

George Orwell's searing account of working-class life in the bleak industrial heartlands of Yorkshire and Lancashire in the 1930s, The Road to Wigan Pier is a brilliant and bitter polemic that has lost none of its political impact over time.

A generous selection and fresh translation of Lorca's suites, work that might have taken its place beside Songs (1927) and Poem of the Deep Song (1931) as a trilogy of Lorca's early modernist lyric. More personal than the other two works, Lorca's suites explore a 'heart without echo' in his time.

A new and definitive edition of Animal Farm, introduced and annotated by Orwell's prize-winning biographer. With additional content from Orwell himself.

'All animals are equal. But some animals are more equal than others.'

Mr Jones of Manor Farm is so lazy and drunken that one day he forgets to feed his livestock. The ensuing rebellion under the leadership of the pigs Napoleon and Snowball leads to the animals taking over the farm. Vowing to eliminate ...

A true modern classic, DARKNESS FALLS FROM THE AIR is a seminal novel of the Second World War.

First UK publication of the immense debut collection of the breakout star author of There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyonce and Magical Negro: award winning poet Morgan Parker

William Blake (1757-1827) was born in London, the son of a Dissenter. In touch with traditions descending from seventeenth-century radical sects, he was on the fringe of a circle of radicals of his own day, including Tom Paine and Mary Wollstonecraft. He learned drawing and engraving, and later became ...

The masterpiece of one of the most important and overlooked British women writers of the twentieth century, with a new introduction by Melissa Harrison; 'Isabel Colegate has no rival' (The Times)

'If you are curious as to why Britain is still ruled by a tiny cadre of not-very-introspective aristo-capitalists, ...

Poems of famous men - and the women who married them - by the Poet Laureate.

The final volume of poems assembled by America's most powerful and distinctive poetic voice.