Other books that might interest you

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  The Black Man's Lament or How to...

  Amelia Opie

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  Amelia Alderson, an only child, was born on the 12th November 1769 in Norwich, England. 
  After the death of her mother on New Year’s Eve 1784 she became her father's housekeeper and hostess. 
  The young Amelia was energetic, attractive, and an admirer of fashion.  She spent much of her youth writing poetry and plays and putting on local amateur theatricals.  At 18 she had published anonymously ‘The Dangers of Coquetry’. 
  Amelia married in the spring of 1798 to the artist John Opie at the Church of St Marylebone, in Westminster, and together they lived in Berners Street where Amelia was already living. 
  Her next novel in 1801 ‘Father and Daughter’, was very popular even though it dealt with such themes as illegitimacy, a socially difficult subject for its times.  From this point on published works were far more regular.  The following year her volume ‘Poems’ appeared and was again very popular.  Novels continued to flow and she never once abandoned her social activism and her call for better treatment of women and the dispossessed in her works.  She was also keenly involved in a love of society and its attendant frills. 
  Encouraged by her husband to write more she published Adeline Mowbray in 1804, an exploration of women's education, marriage, and the abolition of slavery.  
  Her husband died in 1807 and she paused from writing for a few years before resuming with further novels and poems.  Of particular interest was her short poem ‘The Black Man's Lament’ in 1826.  Her life now was in the main spent travelling and working for charities and against slavery.  She even helped create a Ladies Anti-Slavery Society in Norwich which organised a parliamentary petition of 187,000 names of which hers was the first name. 
  After a visit to Cromer, a seaside resort on the North Norfolk coast, she caught a chill and retired to her bedroom.  
  Amelia Opie died on the 2nd December 1853 in Norwich.  She was 84.

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  What Breaks Us - a love letter...

  Megan Davis

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  “What Breaks Us” by Megan Davis is a cathartic collection of poetry that channels pain and angst into strength for healing and self-discovery. This poetry collection is a candid reflection on heartache, loss, and the difficult work of self-examination to uncover unhealed wounds. With topics ranging from love to spirituality, grief to psychology, Davis’s poetry is an outpouring of emotion that balances the deeply personal with the universality of the human experience. 
    
  Davis initially began writing poetry in lieu of journaling, using creative writing as a way to process tumultuous feelings of attraction, loneliness, struggles with mental health, her relationship with spirituality, and the suffering faced by people around the world. She wrote the poems without intending to share them with an audience, and the palpable honesty in each piece of work reflects that intimacy, as well as the author’s approach to poetry as personal catharsis. 
    
  As the sections of the collection progress, readers move through phases of the author’s life alongside her, from heartbreak and anger to battles with addiction, through to growing self-acceptance, connection with others, and ultimately, a sense of empowerment built on perseverance and a willingness to engage with pain as a source of strength. 
    
  Beautifully written and poignantly capturing the internal battles faced by many, Davis’s poems are a touching portrait of the things that hurt us – and the ways these damaging experiences can be alchemized into sources of hope and growth.

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  The Poetry of Ben Jonson - Poems...

  Ben Jonson

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  Benjamin "Ben" Jonson was born in June, 1572. A contemporary of William Shakespeare, he is best known for his satirical plays; Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair, and his equally accomplished lyric poems.  
  A man of vast reading and a seemingly insatiable appetite for controversy, including time in jail and a penchant for switching faiths, Jonson had an unparalleled breadth of influence on Jacobean and Caroline playwrights and poets. 
  In 1616 Jonson was appointed by King James I to receive a yearly pension of £60 to become what is now recognised as the post of the first official Poet Laureate.    
  He died on the 6th of August, 1637 at Westminster and is buried in the north aisle of the nave at Westminster Abbey. 
  A master of both playwriting and poetry his reputation continues to endure and reach a new audience with each succeeding generation. 
   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.

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  A Spring Harvest - Edited by JRR...

  Geoffrey Bache Smith, Charles...

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  The poems of this book were written at very various times, one (“Wind over the Sea”) I believe even as early as 1910, but the order in which they are here given is not chronological beyond the fact that the third part contains only poems written after the outbreak of the war. Of these some were written in England (at Oxford in particular), some in Wales and very many during a year in France from November 1915 to December 1916, which was broken by one leave in the middle of May. “The Burial of Sophocles,” which is here placed at the end, was begun before the war and continued at odd times and in various circumstances afterwards; the final version was sent me from the trenches. Beyond these few facts no prelude and no envoi is needed other than those here printed as their author left them. J. R. R. T.

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  Rhyme A Dozen A - Birds - 12...

  John Keats, Percy Bysshe...

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  ‘A dime a dozen’ as known in America, is perhaps equal to the English ‘cheap as chips’ but whatever the lingua franca of your choice in this series we hereby submit ‘A Rhyme a Dozen’ as 12 poems on many given subjects that are a well-rounded gathering, maybe even an essential guide, from the knowing pens of classic poets and their beautifully spoken verse to the comfort of your ears. 
   
  01 - A Rhyme A Dozen - 12 Poems, 12 Poets, 1 Topic - Birds - An Introduction 
  02 - Ode To A Nightingale by John Keats 
  03 - To a Skylark by Percy Bysshe Shelley 
  04 - The First Swallow by Charlotte Smith 
  05 - The Eagle by Alfred Lord Tennyson 
  06 - The Peacock's Eye by Gerald Manley Hopkins 
  07 - Cuckoo Song by Rudyard Kipling 
  08 - The Pelican Chorus by Edward Lear 
  09 - The Kingfisher by W H Davis 
  10 - The Darkling Thrush by Thomas Hardy 
  11 - The Owl by Alfred Lord Tennyson 
  12 - The Nightingale Has a Lyre of Gold by Wiliam Ernest Henley 
  13 - The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe

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  Giant

  Mark Rosenblatt

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  'I wanted to put you bang in the picture. Apprise you of the difficulties. Because, in case you hadn't noticed, he's a human fucking boobytrap. And now, guess what, surprise surprise, boom!'
  A world-famous children's author under threat. A battle of wills in the wake of scandal. And a chance to make amends…
  It's the summer of 1983, The Witches is about to hit the shelves and Roald Dahl is making last-minute edits. But the outcry at his recent, explicitly antisemitic article won't die down. Across a single afternoon at his family home, and rocked by an unexpectedly explosive confrontation, Dahl is forced to choose: make a public apology or risk his name and reputation.
  Inspired by real events, Mark Rosenblatt's debut play Giant offers a nuanced portrait of a fiendishly charismatic icon – and explores with dark humour the difference between considered opinion and dangerous rhetoric.
  The play was first performed to great acclaim at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2024, directed by Nicholas Hytner with a cast including John Lithgow as Dahl. It transferred to the West End the following year, and won the Olivier and Critics' Circle Awards for Best New Play.

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