P. J. Kavanagh – författare

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.

'Hard to think of a memoir that describes the experience [of love] with as much honesty, passion and precision' David Nicholls'A small masterpiece of its kind, reflecting all the wit, unabashed frankness and literary elegance of its author' Max HastingsFirst published in 1966, this extraordinary memoir has collected a passionate band of devotees. Written with a poet's precision, it is a funny, absorbing and brilliantly portrayed rite of passage - from school playing fields to war's battlefields, holiday camps to writers' hang-outs, Brighton to Paris, Korea to Oxford, Barcelona to Jakarta...Driving the narrator is a desire to recount the effect of a singular young woman; the love of her and the loss of her. A joyous and movingly wise evocation of youth, travel and love; those moments of maximum brilliance, at the edge of possibility.