James Michie – författare

Jean de la Fontaine (1621-95) freely plundered the works of Aesop, Phaedrus, Bidpai and others to transform the world's great fables into charming poems of astonishing originality, wit and verve. Here he depicts lions, frogs, donkeys, rats, insects, birds and wily foxes in situations that reveal the quirks, follies and frailties he observed in humankind. Sins of pride, greed and vanity come under humorous attack - a cunning fox tricks a crow out of his dinner, an arrogant hare loses a race to a steady tortoise, a merry cicada who sings all summer finds herself hungry in winter, and the goddess Juno scolds a peacock who covets a nightingale's song. But faith in human nature can also be found in poems such as those in which a wolf is saved from choking by a helpful stork, demonstrating an engaging belief in the possibilities of redemption.

Short poems can have marvellous clarity, humour, and depth. They can range from subjects as diverse as a child's first wods, a woman's feet, or the destiny of man. P. J. Kavanagh and James Michie have chosen those short poems (of less than fourteen lines) which they consider to be the best in the English language, from medieval times to the present day. Their selection extends from Chaucer to Philip Larkin, from Shakespeare to Emily Bronte, from Blake to Edith Sitwell, and from Yeats to Emily Dickinson, demonstrating the gradual changes in style, subject-matter, and tone from one generation of poets to the next.