Other books that might interest you

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  Drive

  Elaine Sexton

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  " Silently / pulling for itself, / the will wants the body to // give it what it wants," Sexton writes in " Between the Car and the Sea," at once a description of a car' s body propelling her onward, and of the poet herself, the one behind the wheel of this masterful fourth collection. In an extraordinary act of volition, the author does not stop at the trope of ambition, but powers instead toward the urgent concerns of the will, and intention.
  
  
  In Drive, Sexton explores our most fragile points of connection— to lovers and family, to the living and the dead, and to oneself, one' s own life' s work— with the care and wisdom of one who knows these roads. In her hands, these delicate boundaries become navigable. They are both her route and her destination.

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  Metamorphosis (NHB Modern Plays)...

  Franz Kafka

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  Gregor Samsa wakes up each morning, quietly leaves the house to take the same train, and works to pay off the family debt.
  But that world explodes one morning, when Gregor awakes to find himself changed. To those around him he is dangerous, untouchable vermin. Worse than that, he is a burden.
  Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka's shocking tale of cruelty and kindness, has been a literary landmark since it was first published in 1915. Lemn Sissay's thrilling stage adaptation is a visceral and vital depiction of humans struggling within a system that crushes them under its heel. It was commissioned and first produced in 2023 by Frantic Assembly, in a co-production with Theatre Royal Plymouth, Curve, MAST Mayflower Studios, and Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, and was directed by Scott Graham.

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  Ovarium - Poems

  Joanna Ingham

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  Tender, loving and visceral, Ovarium is a pamphlet of poems about a giant ovarian cyst. The poet charts her journey with the cyst, from diagnosis to surgery to recovery, via a landscape of scanner rooms and hospital wards.
  
  The poems explore the impact of illness, and the body as a site of disgust and shame but also healing and endurance. Ingham's poems are forensic as she looks at the disorientating and sometimes patriarchal language of anatomy and medicine, and the way illness can change the relationship we have with our own bodies.
  I tried to think of you as fruit, growing
  against the sun-warm wall of my gut.
  Melon-headed, you nudged the leafy organs,
  dug out a place for yourself in the plot.
  I never guessed. I was only bloody earth
  to you, a coldframe full of light.
  
  - from 'Cyst'

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  Gigi & Dar

  Josh Azouz

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  'Private Gigi. One Direction awaits your commands.'
  A roadblock. Two young women armed with machine guns and Nutella. Days away from finishing the army.
  Gigi has a secret. Dar dreamt she'd be shot today. And there's a strange vehicle heading their way… Well, that's okay. Nothing ever happens here. Right?
  A comic tragedy about what we bury in order to survive, Josh Azouz's play Gigi & Dar was first performed at the Arcola Theatre, London, in 2024, directed by Kathryn Hunter.

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  The Long Weekend

  Rita Ann Higgins

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  From saints' days to Halloween and the many other celebrations on the Irish calendar, this collection of poetry from Rita Ann Higgins sets a tone for all seasons.
  Featuring bank holiday poems as heard on RTÉ Radio, such as 'Lúnasa' and 'Coming Out of Winter', and others like 'My Mother Loved Me in Red', 'The Púca', 'Visiting My Father at Christmas' and 'All Souls' Day', The Long Weekend leaves no question that Rita Ann Higgins is the people's poet.
  'The people's poet. She's magic. She's a one-off.' Brendan O'Connor
  'A haunting, beautiful collection of poems that commands attention and bears witness to life's struggle. This collection confirms Higgins as one of our greatest poets.' Elaine Feeney
  'A work of immense thoughtfulness.'Susannah Dickey

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  Backstroke

  Anna Mackmin

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  'Just let go. Let your body float. You'll still be here but it'll feel like flying in a dream.'
  Bo is busy – balancing the pressures of work and the needs of her struggling daughter. When her mother, the irrepressible force-of-nature Beth, is admitted to hospital following a stroke, the practical realities of the present collide with the complexities of their past.
  Backstroke is a kaleidoscopic and compassionate play, first performed at the Donmar Warehouse, London, in 2025. It was written and directed by Anna Mackmin, with Celia Imrie and Tamsin Greig playing mother and daughter.

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