Silver: Return to Treasure Island

Literature & Fiction

ANDREW MOTION

British & Irish

Vintage

The Penguin Book of Elegy: Poems of Memory, Mourning and Consolation

Stephen Regan

History & Criticism

Penguin Classics

John Donne (1572-1631) is best known as the greatest English metaphysical poet. But there was another dimension to Donne's life and writing that, if less well known, is no less profound and beautiful. Born into an aristocratic Catholic family, Donne joined the Church of England at the age of twenty-one out of fear of persecution. At the age of forty-three, he gave up his preoccupations with secular prestige and devoted himself utterly to religion. It was eight years later when, battered with fever, the deaths of his beloved wife, several of his children, and many dear lifelong friends, he composed Devotions upon Emergent Occasions. There is both trauma and great drama in this extended meditation on the meaning of mortality, the possibility of salvation, and the true nature of the passage of eternal life. With a new introduction by poet and biographer Andrew Motion, one of the most revered books of Christian devotion speaks to us again of the higher aspirations of man and the always-present possibility of a relationship with God. This long out of print edition also contains Donne's last sermon, "Death's Duel" as well as the short colorful biography of him written by his contemporary Izaak Walton.

Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions and Death's Duel

Biographies & Memoirs

Izaak Walton

John, Donne

Arts & Literature

Philip Larkin: A Writer's Life

Philip Larkin a Writer's Life

Faber and Faber

Philip Larkin, known to many through his poems, contrived to present a picture of himself to the world which kept many facets of his complicated personality hidden. In this biography Andrew Motion, Larkin's literary executor and close friend, reveals the full man. Granted access to private documents and assisted by the men and women most intimately connected with the poet, this book tells the story of how Larkin, to the cost of his own happiness and that of others, achieved "a writer's life". The author has won the Somerset Maugham Award for poetry and biography.

Philip Larkin : A Writer's Life

Faber Paperbacks

The outline of the story of John Keats's life is well known: the archetypal life of the Romantic genius, critically spurned and dying young. This biography aims to enrich the facts with an understanding of how Keats fitted into the intellectual and political life of his time. It includes detailed examination of significant friendships with anti-establishment figures such as Hazlitt and Hunt, and the closeness of Keats's own spirit to the ferment all around, as expressed in his poems. The book also presents information about his schooldays and medical training.

Keats

Arts & Photography

Faber Faber Inc

The author evokes Wainewright the poisoner's double life in a biography that takes the form of a confession. He strips away the layers of legend and restores Wainewright to his own voice, capturing his energy, charm, callousness, wit and wantoness.

Wainewright the Poisoner

Faber&Faber

Since becoming Poet Laureate in 1999, Andrew Motion has been tireless in his efforts to raise the profile of poetry. In this anthology, he has brought together a wide range of poems, exemplifying his belief that, if we let it, 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". Each section is distinct but seeks out resemblances and echoes elsewhere, creating the impression of an endlessly expanding universe. From Wallace Stevens to Stevie Smith, Joseph Brodsky, to Jo Shapcott, Bob Dylan to Dylan Thomas, Ben Jonson to Benjamin Zephaniah, this anthology should provide the perfect introduction for new readers and offer surprising connections and revelations to those who are already well-versed.

Here to Eternity : An Anthology of Poetry

Poetry

From the earliest times poets have spoken out against the horrors of war - many dying on the battlefields on which they wrote. This anthology gathers together poems against war - from an infamous last stand in Ancient Greece to the chemical warfare of the present-day Gulf. Featuring many of our most treasured poets - Wilfred Owen, Philip Larkin, Stevie Smith and Emily Dickinson among them - "101 Poems Against War" selects too from the poems being written across the barricades: the enemy soldier, a German widow, a young Vietnamese boy, and by contemporary Arabic poets. From the men who held their dying friends to the agony of the women left behind, this anthology gathers those moments of warning and protest from all corners of the earth: the times in which it was left to the poets to speak out against the true terror of war.

101 Poems Against War

In the Blood: A Memoir of my Childhood

In the Blood: A Memoir of My Childhood

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Books by ANDREW MOTION