Essential Poems for the Way We Live Now

by Daisy Goodwin

Genres: Poetry

Hardcover

First published October 3, 2005

About the author

DAISY GOODWIN, a Harkness scholar who attended Columbia University’s film school after earning a degree in history at Cambridge University, is a leading television producer in the U.K. Her poetry anthologies, including 101 Poems That Could Save Your Life, have introduced many new readers to the pleasures of poetry, and she was Chair of the judging panel of the 2010 Orange Prize for Fiction. That was the year she published her first novel the American Heiress ( My Last Duchess in UK) , followed by The Fortune Hunter and now Victoria. She has also created VICTORIA the PBS/ITV series which starts in January. She has three dogs, two dogs, and one husband.

Reviews

[Sophie Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book after first getting it from the library and bought it for my mum. It's good for Daisy Goodwin to choose the things i want to say but can't.

[Angela Moore Garden Tea Cakes and Me · Rating 3 out of 5]

I rarely sit and read poetry from a book, usually a read individual poems I discover in other pieces of literature such as newspapers, magazines or social media. Or when out visiting museums or historical places of interest. This book collates a wide variety of poetry both old and new. None of which are composed by Daisy Goodwin who has collated the poems for this book and has her name emblazoned all over the cover. Which certainly worked on me! Browsing my local library for a 'learners' book of poetry it was her name that drew me to it, one to borrow not one to buy in my opinion.

I enjoyed many of the poems and it has clearly drawn to my attention to which poets are my favourites Thomas Hardy, Sir John Betjeman and Wendy Cope. Though I have no wish to read anymore of Philip Larkin.

[Calum Mackenzie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This collection by Daisy Goodwin is her weakest. A lot of the poems are either mainly classical or just not very good. The final poem is arguably poor taste and some of the poems in the ‘sex section’ are cringe-worthy.

Don’t recommend this.

[MargeryK · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really dislike the way this book is presented and marketed. On the back of the book is a headshot of the Daisy Goodwin, (whoever the hell she is) and considering that her only role was choosing the poems of other people, I think that's narcissistic.

Then there's the title: "ESSENTIAL POEMS for the way we live now". Is it eckers like. The front cover of my copy has a photo of a laptop keyboard and a rather dated-looking mobile phone. The third section of poems in the anthology, was food themed: 'FOOD, GLORIOUS FOOD' and I quote: "These poems pre-date Delia, Nigella and Jamie and the final drizzle of virgin olive oil....." HARDLY eschewing the way we live, and EAT now, then is it? Lazy. Surely there are some poems out there about chocolate, bulgar wheat, coconut water and the Atkins Diet?

I also don't like the fact that the only information Ms Goodwin deigns to give us about the poem is the author. No date, no 'this was written blah'. Nada. Really deserves that huge glossy photo of herself on the back, doesn't she?