Frank Skinner writes a book about poetry
- Frank Skinner has written a new book called How To Enjoy Poetry
- Aiming to make poetry more popular, it will be published on 10th September
- The publishers say: "Frank's infectious passion for language, rhythm and metre will win you over"
Frank Skinner has written a book on poetry.
How To Enjoy Poetry will be published on 10th September, as part of the Little Ways To Live A Big Life series from Quercus Books, an imprint of Hachette.
The comic launched his Frank Skinner's Poetry Podcast during the coronavirus lockdown, a six-part series distributed by his regular broadcaster Absolute Radio in which he dissected the work of both famous and lesser-known poets.
He said: "Someone recently said to me, in reference to my poetry podcast, that you'd think poetry would be more popular than ever, in the twenty-first century, because people don't have a lot of time and 'novels are often quite big while poems are often quite small'. I referred them to Doctor Who's Tardis."
Publisher Quercus adds that, "whether you're a frequent poetry reader or haven't read any since sixth form, Frank's infectious passion for language, rhythm and metre will win you over and provide you with the basic tools you need to tackle any poem."
Stevie Smith's short poem Pad, Pad is among the verses Skinner examines in the book for its "multitudes of meaning and a deceptive depth of emotion".
On the final episode of the poetry podcast in May, focusing on Gerard Manley Hopkins, Skinner said that the series "may come back, I don't know. I'm waiting by the telephone".
The comic has published three books previously, the memoirs Frank Skinner by Frank Skinner in 2001 and Frank Skinner on the Road: Love, Stand-Up Comedy and the Queen of the Night in 2009, as well as a collection of his weekly columns in The Times, 2011's The Collected Wisdom of Frank Skinner: Dispatches from the Sofa.
The comic was a lecturer in English before becoming a stand-up and is something of a Renaissance man, having presented Portrait Artist and Landscape Artist Of The Year on Sky Arts, in addition to being an opera aficionado and Anglo-Saxon history enthusiast.
His Showbiz stand-up tour is currently set to resume at the Grand Theatre in Blackpool on 15th October but could be subject to further postponements because of coronavirus.
The Little Ways To Live A Big Life series already includes author Michael Rosen's guide How To Make Children Laugh. And from 10th September it will include How To Skim A Stone from Ralph Jones, the journalist and member of sketch duo The Awkward Silence.
How To Enjoy Poetry is available to pre-order now.
Frank Skinner - How To Enjoy Poetry
"Someone recently said to me, in reference to my poetry podcast, that you'd think poetry would be more popular than ever, in the twenty-first century, because people don't have a lot of time and 'novels are often quite big while poems are often quite small'. I referred them to Doctor Who's Tardis."
Frank Skinner wants you to read more poetry. Wait, wait - don't stop reading. Whether you're a frequent poetry reader or haven't read any since sixth form, Frank's infectious passion for language, rhythm and metre will win you over and provide you with the basic tools you need to tackle any poem.
In this short, easy-to-digest and delightful book, Frank guides us through the twists and turns of Pad, pad by Stevie Smith, a short, seemingly simple poem that contains multitudes of meaning and a deceptive depth of emotion. Revel in the mastery of Stevie Smith's choice of words, consider the eternal mystery of the speaker of the poem and be moved by rhyming couplets like you never have before.
Give it a go. You never know, you might even enjoy it.
First published: Thursday 10th September 2020
- Publisher: Quercus
- Pages: 64
- Catalogue: 9781529412963
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- Publisher: Quercus
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