Publisher: AB Books
The Wind in the Willows is a classic of children's literature by Kenneth Grahame, first published in 1908. Alternately slow moving and fast paced, it focuses on four anthropomorphised animal characters in a pastoral version of England. The novel is notable for its mixture of mysticism, adventure, morality, and camaraderie.
A poem for Halloween by the 17th century English author Robert Herrick. His poems were not widely popular at the time they were published. His style was strongly influenced by Ben Jonson, by the classical Roman writers, and by the poems of the late Elizabethan era. This must have seemed quite old-fashioned to an audience whose tastes were tuned to the complexities of the metaphysical poets such as John Donne and Andrew Marvell. His works were rediscovered in the early nineteenth century, and have been regularly printed ever since. (Summary by Wikipedia)Show book
Dante Gabriel Rossetti was born on May 12th 1828 in London, England. As a youth he was "self-possessed, articulate, passionate and charismatic" but also "ardent, poetic and feckless". Like his siblings, including famed poet Christina Georgina Rossetti, he most wished to be a poet but had a keen eye as a painter, having shown a great interest in Medieval Italian art. Together with William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais they developed and founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. It’s mission; to reform English art and return to the detail, intense colours, and complex compositions of Quattrocento Italian and Flemish art. The brotherhood's magazine, The Germ, was first published in 1850 with Rossetti contributing a poem, "The Blessed Damozel", and a story about a fictional Italian artist inspired by a vision of a woman who bids him combine the human and the divine in his art. Rossetti first met his future wife, Elizabeth Siddal, a model, in 1849 who was later sitting for him and involved in an intense relationship. By 1852 they withdrew from society; totally absorbed in each other. The lovers nicknamed each other; "Guggums" and "Dove". In 1861, Rossetti, together with William Morris, became a founding partner in the decorative arts firm, Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. Rossetti contributed designs for stained glass and other decorative objects. Meanwhile his marriage to Lizzie was troubled. The terrible hurt of Rossetti’s affairs with other women had caused her stress leading to depression and other illnesses. She now began to take, and become addicted to, laudanum. In 1861, Lizzie became pregnant but the resultant birth was a stillborn daughter. Lizzie’s post-partum depression was followed by an overdose of laudanum the following year. Rossetti was devastated and, at her funeral in Highgate Cemetery, he buried the bulk of his unpublished poems with her body. Poetry and painting are closely entwined in Rossetti's work. He frequently wrote sonnets to accompany his pictures, while also creating art to illustrate poems such as "Goblin Market" by his sister. His personal life was closely woven into his work, especially his relationships with his models and muses. William Morris’s wife, Jane, regularly sat for him during the next few years, and it was said she "consumed and obsessed him in paint, poetry, and life". During these years, Rossetti was prevailed upon by friends to exhume his poems from his wife's grave which he eventually did, collating and publishing them in 1870. Their eroticism and sensuality caused much offence. One, "Nuptial Sleep", described a couple falling asleep after sex. It was part of the sonnet sequence The House of Life, a complex series tracing the physical and spiritual development of an intimate relationship. Rossetti described the sonnet form as a "moment's monument" and these were his crowning literary achievement. Toward the end of his life, he sank into a morbid state, shadowed by addiction to chloral hydrate and increasing mental instability. He spent his last years as a recluse at Cheyne Walk and died on Easter Sunday, April 9th, 1882. This volume comes to you from Portable Poetry, a specialized imprint from Deadtree Publishing. Our range is large and growing and covers single poets, themes, and many compilations.Show book
Robert Peake's second full collection of poems is about weathering storms—personal, political, psychological—in our present-day climate of chaos. These are matters of life or death, and Cyclone urges us to consider what the ill wind may bring, and how we will survive it. Peake's acutely tuned poems bring eloquence and urgency to matters of profound devastation. With shattering delicacy, he writes of personal loss, of grief and the long aftermath; "whenever the wind sprays into my face, I taste salt of your absence". These poems also hazard an eye at the global weather and find a world in turmoil, wild with unreliable news and terrible forecasts. Manifesting between the storms is the man with the kindest face. Is he here to save us or warn us? A guide or a harbinger? As these brilliantly-visioned poems suggest, nothing is certain in the eye of the storm. Nevertheless, there is some form of consolation and rescue: "He seems at home in this tempest. He seems happy".Show book
These twelve poems are taken from Ballads of a Cheechako which was Robert W. Service's third book of Yukon poems, published in 1909. The word Cheechako, from Chinook Jargon, originated in the United States (Alaska) and Canada (Yukon) and was imported into local English during the Yukon gold rush that began in 1896. Cheechako, is a non derogatory word meaning "newcomer" or "tenderfoot." The derivation looks something like this: chee new cha come ko home. (summary by Heidi Preuss)Show book
Jericho by Malaprop Theatre is an off-kilter, high-energy, form-pushing play about what pro-wrestling and politics have in common. It asks big questions in weird ways, like what can a pop-culture journalist do to stop the world burning down? It was first performed at Bewley's Cafe Theatre, Dubin, in February 2017, before being reworked and performed at Underbelly, as part of Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2018. Also available in the collection Plays from VAULT 4.Show book
While traveling abroad, a young academic (Anthony D.P. Mann) discovers that the inn in which he is staying, harbors a dark secret: A mysterious room that appears after midnight, and within - a foreboding presence. What sinister entity lurks behind the door to room number 13? Featuring Peter Davison (Doctor Who, All Creatures Great & Small) and Terry Wade, with an original music score by Brent Holland.Show book
