Description
| Product ID: | 9781529042085 |
| Product Form: | Hardback |
| Country of Manufacture: | GB |
| Title: | The Fire of Joy |
| Subtitle: | Roughly 80 Poems to Get by Heart and Say Aloud |
| Authors: | Author: Clive James |
| Page Count: | 320 |
| Subjects: | Poetry by individual poets, Poetry by individual poets |
| Description: | Select Guide Rating In the last book he completed before he died, Clive James offers a personal guide to the poems he found it impossible to forget. <p><b>Clive James read, learned and recited poetry aloud for most of his life. In this, the last book he completed before his death, the much-loved poet, broadcaster and author offers a selection of his favourite poems and a personal commentary on each.</b><br><br>In the last months of his life, his vision impaired by surgery and unable to read, Clive James explored the treasure-house of his mind: the poems he knew best, so good that he didn't just remember them, he found them impossible to forget. <i>The Fire of Joy</i> is the record of this final journey of recollection and celebration.<br><br>Enthralled by poetry all his life, James knew hundreds of poems by heart. In offering this selection of his favourites, a succession of poems from the sixteenth century to the present, his aim is to inspire you to discover and to learn, and perhaps even to speak poetry aloud.<br><br>In his highly personal anthology, James offers a commentary on each of the eighty or so poems: sometimes a historical or critical note on the poem or its author, sometimes a technical point about the poem's construction from someone who was himself a poet, sometimes a personal anecdote about the role the poem played in his own life.<br><br>Whether you're familiar with a poem or not – whether you're familiar with poetry in general or not – these chatty, unpretentious, often tender mini-essays convey the joy of James's enthusiasm and the benefit of his knowledge. His urgent wish was to share with a new generation what he himself had loved. This is a book to be read cover to cover or dipped into: either way it generously opens up a world for our delight.<br><br><b>'Clive James's joyous farewell . . . from Thomas Wyatt to Carol Ann Duffy' – <i>Guardian</i>, Best Poetry of 2020<br><br>Clive James </b>(1939–2019) was a broadcaster, critic, poet, memoirist and novelist. His acclaimed poetry includes the collection <i>Sentenced to Life</i> and a translation of Dante's <i>The Divine Comedy</i>, both <i>Sunday Times</i> bestsellers.</p> |
| Imprint Name: | Picador |
| Publisher Name: | Pan Macmillan |
| Country of Publication: | GB |
| Publishing Date: | 2020-10-01 |
