A new anthology of poems from one of Britain's most well-respected poets
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.
What's the best thing about judging the Forward prizes? Free books?
Reassessing a poet you hadn't paid enough attention to? Those are
good, but the best might be the poems, and odd lines, that stick in
your head. They may be from books that didn't even make the
shortlist, but they've still made a mark – Dannie Abse's line "Men
become mortal when their fathers die" from his collection Speak,
Old Parrot, isn't going to leave me any time soon.
*Guardian Books Blog*
The phenomenal Dr Abse still prescribes verbal wit and human
warmth, radiant memory and blazing perception, as remedies against
a time of life when "all pavements slope uphill". This veteran
flyer can still sing and swoop.
*Independent*
Dannie Abse's line "Men become mortal when their fathers die" from
his collection Speak, Old Parrot, isn't going to leave me any time
soon.
*Guardian*
It’s a book packed with both feeling and swagger, a tumbling energy
that belies the closing farewell.
*Literary Review*
There is much that could be said about this inspiring collection,
and all of it positive. It should be bought, read and re-read.
*New Welsh Review*
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