Book description
Dannie and Joan Abse had been married for more than fifty years when
she was killed in a car crash in 2005. After her death he wrote his
extraordinary memoir of loss, The Presence, which was the Wales
Book of the Year in 2008.
In contrast, much of this new collection is a delightful
celebration. In it Dannie Abse returns to their marriage through all
its seasons, and celebrates love in verse which is funny, tender and
playful as well as serious and passionate. Almost half the poems
appear in this form for the first time.
'One for sorrow, two for joy' is the old country saw about the
magpie. These poems reflect its truth, and in the process transfigure
ordinary life and love into something rich and strange.
Dannie Abse, poet and doctor, lives in Golders Green. This year he
celebrated sixty years of publishing with Hutchinson. A former President
of the Poetry Society, he has written over thirty books, including
poetry, fiction, criticism, plays, medical subjects and memoirs. His
novel
The Strange Case of Dr Simmonds and Dr Glas
was long-listed for the Booker Prize and his recent memoir
The
Presence
was Wales Book of the Year 2008.
