Neil Astley

An anthology of five hundred poems by poets from around the world explores themes of passion, spirituality, death, and friendship, in a collection that includes contributions by such writers as Mary Oliver, W.H. Auden, Charles Simic.

Real Poems for Unreal Times

Staying Alive

Being Alive is the sequel to Neil Astley's Staying Alive, which became Britain's most popular poetry book because it gave readers hundreds of thoughtful and passionate poems about living in the modern world. Now he has assembled this equally lively companion anthology.

The Companion Anthology to Staying Alive and Being Alive

Being Human

This new pocketbook selection of 100 essential poems from the trilogy is a Staying Alive travel companion (also available as an e-book). As well as selecting favourite poems from the trilogy - readers' and writers' choices as well as his own favourites - editor Neil Astley provides background notes on the poets and poems.

Essential Poems from the Staying Alive Trilogy

REAL POEMS FOR UNREAL TIMES

STAYING ALIVE

'Being Alive' is the sequel to 'Staying Alive' and is about being human: about love and loss, fear and longing, hurt and wonder.

Being Alive

Kafka said we should read books which bite and sting: 'If the book we are reading does not wake us up with a blow to the head, what's the point in reading? A book must be the axe which smashes the frozen sea within us.' Brian Hinton applied this to Neil Astley's anthology Poetry with an Edge, which 'crystallises what he has already achieved with Bloodaxe, well designed and committed books, though never comfortable to read. They answer Kafka's deﬁnition of what real literature should be.' New Blood is the sequel to Poetry with an Edge, which marked Bloodaxe's ﬁrst decade of poetry publishing. This completely new anthology brings together poets who have published their ﬁrst collections during the past ten years. New Blood shows that Bloodaxe isn't going rusty with age, for here are some of the sharpest new talents in poetry - with poems which bite and sting as well as disturb and delight the reader. This book of new poetry from Bloodaxe 'must be the axe which smashes the frozen sea within us'.

New Blood

Poems for Funerals

Do Not Go Gentle

Tony Harrison is 'a major dramatic poet' (TLS), 'our finest theatrical translator' (The Times) and 'the greatest modern theatrical poet' (Punch). Like Brecht, Harrison is both a major social poet and an innovative dramatist. In his work for theatre, opera and television he has extended the Brechtian tradition of music theatre. While his poetry and plays have been acclaimed by readers, theatre-goers and critics, he has gained wider notoriety and respect for his controversial television work: especially Channel 4's film of his poem 'v.' and his defence of Salman Rushdie, 'The Blasphemers' Banquet'. This is the first critical guide to the work of Tony Harrison, and covers his poetry, translations, theatre and television work:Essays and articles by leading writers and critics: Jonathan Barker, Rosemary Burton, Maureen Duffy, Douglas Dunn, Peter Forbes, Damian Grant, Romana Huk, Peter Levi, Marianne McDonald, Blake Morrison, Oswyn Murray, Bernard O'Donoghue, Rick Rylance, Carol Rutter, Oliver Taplin, Jeffrey Wainwright, Ken Worpole, Alan Young and others.Working with Tony Harrison: articles by director Richard Eyre, designer Jocelyn Herbert, actors Barrie Rutter and Jack Shepherd, composer Stephen Edwards, and TV producers Andree Molyneux and Peter Symes.Important reviews of Harrison's poetry and plays by John Barber, Clive Barnes, Michael Billington, Michael Coveney, Robert Cushman, Terry Eagleton, James Fenton, Marilyn Hacker, Ian Hamilton, Bernard Levin, John Peter, Michael Ratcliffe, Lawrence Sail, John Simon, Stephen Spender and others.Eight essays and prefaces by Tony Harrison as well as his new long poem 'The Mother of the Muses', and the complete texts of his television poems 'Arctic Paradise' and 'The Blasphemers' Banquet'.Interviews with Tony Harrison by John Haffenden and Richard Hoggart.

Tony Harrison

This book of open letters was published in 1990 in the final year of Margaret Thatcher's premiership, ahead of the 1992 General Election which John Major would go on to win against Neil Kinnock: by ministers and statesmen, MPs and government advisors, writers, campaigners and environmentalists. Sometimes scatching, often witty or withering, all these letters are challenging, well informed and highly relevant. They give vividly sharp insights into the thinking of government and opposition on the policies which will make or break the Prime Minister at the next election. This is both a timely collection of urgent political letters with a wide appeal as well as a book of great literary merit and distinction.The letter are by Leo Abse, Brian Aldiss, Lisa Appignanesi, David Astor, Kenneth Baker, Peter Barnes, Stan Barstow, Michael Blackburn, Tessa Blackstone, David Blunkett, John Calder, Ann Clwyd, David Constantine, Tam Dalyell, Paul Davies, Brenda Dean, Margaret Drabble, Daniel Easterman, Lucy Ellmann, Hans Eysenck, Penelope Fitzgerald, Bryan Gould, Peter Hain, Denis Healey, Ted Hughes, H.R.F. Keating, Bruce Kent, David Icke, Sheila Kitzinger, Doris Lessing, Peter Levi, John Lister, Henry Livings, Ken Loach, Christopher Logue, Norris McWhirter, Richard Mabey, John May, Julian Mitchell, Jan Morris, Paul Ostreicher, Fintan O'Toole, Ian Paisley, Ben Pimlott, Alan Plater, Daivd Powell, Jonathan Raban, Jo Richardson, Michele Roberts, William Rodgers, Sir Roy Shaw, Sue Slipman, Anne Smith, Vivian Stern, D.M. Thomas, Alan Thornett, Ron Todd, Chad Varah, John J. Vincent, Marina Warner, Tim Waterstone, Auberon Waugh, Arnold Wesker, Colin Wilson, Elizabeth Wilson, Michael Winner and Jeanette Winterson.

Open Letters to Margaret Thatcher & Neil Kinnock

Dear Next Prime Minister

This lively anthology brings together two kinds of funny: humorous poems that make you laugh or smile (funny ha-ha), and strange, surreal, witty or plain weird poems (funny peculiar). There has always been a tradition of comic and curious verse in English poetry, but in contemporary poetry the peculiar has come into its own, as this surprising selection shows. Presented in a hardback version of the giftbook format used for other shorter Bloodaxe anthologies aimed at a popular readership, Funny Ha-Ha, Funny Peculiar covers a wide variety of highly entertaining or provocatively engaging poets.

A Book of Strange and Comic Poems

Funny Ha-Ha, Funny Peculiar

'Earth Shattering' lines up a chorus of over 200 poems addressing environmental destruction.

Ecopoems

Earth Shattering

The Poetry of North-East England

Land of Three Rivers

This volume of poetry provides a collection of funeral poems, appropriate for reading at a funeral or memorial service.

Brendan Kennelly

The Heavy Bear Who Goes with Me is the ultimate reader's companion to poetry: a selection of 100 classic poems from ﬁve centuries with lively "companion" commentaries to go with and illuminate each poem. The heavy bear can be many things which go with the bearer: another self or alter ego, the burden of poetry or art, what weighs us down and makes us do what we don't really want to do as well as what pulls us back to our selves, the animal side which makes us bearable or human. The editors' selection ranges from Wyatt, Ralegh and Shakespeare in the 16th century, to Donne, Milton and Marvell in the 17th, to Swift, Pope and Johnson in the 18th. It embraces the Romantic visions of Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley and Keats, as well as the later, darker outlook of Browning, Tennyson and Hardy, and seeks enlightenment in the shadowlands of Emily Dickinson, Wilde and Yeats. As well as journeying with the reader through some of the greatest poems in the English language, The Heavy Bear encounters many modern poets, not least Delmore Schwartz, whose sense of conﬂict between self and society gave birth to this anthology's title-poem, 'The Heavy Bear Who Goes with Me'. Others include some of the major figures in Irish poetry Brendan Kennelly has known personally as well as written about, including Patrick Kavanagh, Seamus Heaney, Michael Longley, Derek Mahon and Eavan Boland. The poems keep each other company in this highly original compilation, questioning each other in a continuing thematic, imagistic debate which the editors seek to explore in their responses, trying at all times to deﬁne their sense and vision of poetry as disturbing, questioning, enlightening companionship for the reader. Both editors are renowned communicators of poetry: Brendan Kennelly as one of Ireland's best-loved poets, as Professor of Modern Literature at Trinity College Dublin, and as a popular cultural commentator on Irish television; Neil Astley as founder and editor of Bloodaxe Books and editor of the Staying Alive anthology series. This long awaited anthology is published on 17th April 2021 in celebration of Brendan Kennelly's 85th birthday.

The Heavy Bear Who Goes with Me

Classic and contemporary poems celebrating love, passion and desire.

100 Love Poems

Passionfood

Staying Human is the latest addition to Bloodaxe's bestselling Staying Alive series of world poetry anthologies.

New Poems for Staying Alive

Staying Human

The End of My Tether

Bloodaxe's "house" anthology was first published to mark the press's tenth anniversary in 1988. This was a 320-page anthology. A revised, second edition appeared in 1993, with the same ISBN, expanded to 384 pages.With its bold, uncompromising "stable" of new and established British, Irish, American and European writers, Bloodaxe has revolutionised poetry publishing in Britain. Bloodaxe poets can't be labelled. They are all different, and they include some of the major writers of our time: Irina Ratushinskaya, Miroslav Holub, Tony Harrison, Denise Levertov, R.S. Thomas, Kamau Brathwaite, Marin Sorescu and Tomas Tranströmer. But if you want a deﬁnition of 'poetry with an edge', the poems in this book will supply it. Poetry with an Edge is a startling anthology of vital, vigorous poetry celebrating ﬁfteen years of Bloodaxe Books.Sunday Times: 'Bloodaxe Books has established a ferocious reputation as a publisher of ground-breaking modern poetry.It has cornered a market in the publishing industry with ﬂair, imagination and conspicuous success.'The Listener: 'Bloodaxe has been the liveliest and most innovative poetry house in the last couple of years...The moment a name starts buzzing on the poetry grapevine you can be sure that Bloodaxe will be on the trail.'Ambit: 'They are bold and prepared to take risks and put books on the market simply because they think they should be read.'Tribune: 'The poets are both new and downright expert.''This is a vital and catholic anthology, one of the best, in terms of value for money, since The Rattle Bag.' - David Profumo, Sunday Times'As an introduction to the best contemporary poetry, this anthology is invaluable.' - Peter Sirr, Irish Times

Poetry with an Edge

Passionfood is a feast of classic and contemporary love poems. There are a hundred flavours in this four-course celebration of love, passion and desire. Compiled by Staying Alive editor Neil Astley, its menu is distinctively different from that of other anthologies of love poetry. There are no broken hearts here. Passionfood is a celebration of true love - love that grows into love that lasts, love that fills every part of our lives, love that never leaves us. Passionfood opens with a starter selection of poems about attraction, desire and longing. Passion is the main course: the excitement of love, being and staying in love, including many of the greatest poems in our literature - by writers such as Shakespeare, John Donne, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Emily Dickinson, Yeats and Auden. For dessert, the book offers deliciously saucy poems by leading contemporary poets. But like love, Passionfood is a feast which doesn't have to end. The fruit that follows dessert offers still more poetry to savour: poems about deepening love and friendship, love that never leaves us, poems celebrating closeness, trust and mutual understanding, poems of joy, wisdom and shared recognition. Passionfood is a book of positive, provocative and witty love poems for everyone whose life has been nourished and sustained by love, mixing passion with food for thought. It's also a book which holds out hope, and as such, a perfect gift for the person you love, for weddings and engagements, birthdays, anniversaries and Valentine's Day. This new edition is beautifully presented in a quarter-bound hardback gift format.

Neil Astley

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