New Selected Poems

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

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

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

His best work in a long life of brilliant writing

Abse's poems are filled with wonder. He remains one of our few great poets of married love

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 fifteen 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, including Goodbye, Twentieth Century, which was published in 2001 to critical acclaim. He died, at the age of 91, in September 2014.

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.

Dannie Abse

This is a poet writing at the height of his powers

These poems are brilliant, savage, witty - the work of an old master

Truly remarkable... I recommend this book

Dannie Abse's distinctiveness as a poet lies in his clarity. His distinction lies in his imaginative and feeling responses to a variety of different worlds - work as a doctor, the experience of life in Wales and North London, the mysterious nature of creativity, the Jewish and bardic traditions. This collection draws on all these strands and is divided between personal experience and more general reflections, often prompted by an urgent awareness of the passing of time, counterpointed with transcendent moments of joy in ordinary things.

Dannie Abse

Praise for Running Late

Abse's poems are filled with wonder. He remains one of our few great poets of married love

His best work in a long life of brilliant writing

This marvellous book of poetry

Abse's poems are filled with wonder. He remains one of our few great poets of married love

His best work in a long life of brilliant writing

This marvellous book of poetry

Abse's poems are filled with wonder. He remains one of our few great poets of married love

His best work in a long life of brilliant writing

This marvellous book of poetry

Books by Dannie Abse

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