New Selected Poems [Paperback]

A new and definitive volume of poems, which includes new work, to mark Dannie Abse's 60 years with Hutchinson.

The year 2009 marks the 60th anniversary of the publication of Dannie Abse's first poetry collection, After Every Green Thing, and since that time he has published an astonishing range of books, including poetry, fiction, criticism and autobiography. He remains a writer of great distinction who is at the height of his powers - his memoir, The Presence, won the Wales Book of the Year in 2008. But it is as a poet that Dannie Abse is best known, and to mark this extraordinary milestone he has compiled a new and definitive volume of selected poems which includes new work combining both passion and maturity.

The year 2009 marks the 60th anniversary of the publication of Dannie Abse's first poetry collection, After Every Green Thing, and since that time he has published an astonishing range of books, including poetry, fiction, criticism and autobiography. He remains a writer of great distinction who is at the height of his powers - his memoir, The Presence, won the Wales Book of the Year in 2008. But it is as a poet that Dannie Abse is best known, and to mark this extraordinary milestone he has compiled a new and definitive volume of selected poems which includes new work combining both passion and maturity.

Praise for Dannie Abse

'The Presence is a fragment of autobiography written from the most private part of a poet's heart, with a pen dipped in blood and tears' Carol Ann Duffy, Daily Telegraph

'For all its painful honesty [The Presence is] a surprisingly joyful and compelling book... Imbued with all the best qualities of what it means to human and in love' Owen Sheers, Independent on Sunday

'His best work in a long life of brilliant writing' Maggie Gee, New Statesman

'Abse's poems are filled with wonder. He remains one of our few great poets of married love' Elaine Feinstein, The Times

Dannie Abse was for many years a chest specialist in a London teaching hospital. A poet, reviewer and playwright, he has written and edited more than sixteen books of poetry, as well as books about medicine and also fiction. He is the author of Ash on a Young Man's Sleeve and several autobiographical volumes, the most recent of which, Goodbye, Twentieth Century, was published by Pimlico in 2001 to critical acclaim. His most recent novel, The Strange Case of Dr Simmonds & Dr Glas, was published in 2002 and long-listed for the Booker Prize. In 2003 his New and Collected Poems received the Special Commendation of the Poetry Book Society, and Running Late received the Roland Mathais Prize in 2007. Dannie Abse's most recent book, The Presence, won the Wales Book of the Year.