Following the hugely successful Josephine Hart Poetry Hours at the British Library where actors such as Roger Moore and Juliet Stevenson have read poetry from Auden to Eliot, from Larkin to Plath - comes the audiobook of those readings
This audiobook is an anthology of poems by WH Auden, TS Eliot, Philip Larkin, Emily Dickinson, Marianne Moore, Rudyard Kipling, Sylvia Plath and W B Yeats, introduced by Josephine Hart and read by a cast of famous actors: Ralph Fiennes, Edward Fox, Ian McDiarmid, Helen McCrory, Sir Roger Moore, Harold Pinter, Elizabeth McGovern, Harriet Walter, Sir Bob Geldof, Sinead Cusack, Grey Gowrie, Rupert Graves and Juliet Stevenson.
'The idea is simple,' says Josephine Hart as she introduces the poets and takes us through their life and writings, 'an understanding of the life and philosophy of the poet illuminates the poetry and therefore makes the experience of reading or listening to each poem more intense.'
Whether you believe, like Robert Frost, that poetry is a way of catching life by the throat or, like Eliot, it is one person talking to another, nobody does it better than the poets whose work and life will feature in this publication.
Live readings by good voices are a terrific idea. All the greats are here - BOOKSELLER
For all ages . . . [the poets'] work is enhanced by some of our greatest actors - FT MAGAZINE
The performances illuminate afresh - SUNDAY TIMES
How gratifying for once to find an audiobook that's a million times better than its print counterpart . . . Inspired - GUARDIAN
Josephine Hart (1942-2011) was the bestselling author of Damage, Sin, Oblivion and The Reconstructionist. She was a Director of Haymarket Publishing and founded Gallery Poets before going on to produce a number of West End plays. As well writing novels, she was a 'poetry evangelist' and her Josephine Hart Poetry Hour at the British Library inspired two edited poetry books: Catching Life By the Throat and Words that Burn. She was married to Maurice Saatchi and had two sons.