Off The Shelf: A Celebration of Bookshops in Verse

In Off the Shelf: A Celebration of Bookshops in Verse, the Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy commissioned a selection of the UK's most loved and lauded poets to each write a poem in celebration of books and bookshops - the worlds they hold, the freedoms they promise, and the memories they evoke. From a basement of forgotten books to the shelves of a cramped Welsh arcade, from the poetry corner of the local bookstore to the last bookshop standing in a post-apocalyptic world, these are poems that pay tribute to all the places that house the stories we treasure.
In this new expanded edition, treasured poems from Scottish Makar Jackie Kay, former National Poet of Wales Gillian Clarke, Clive James, Don Paterson, Patience Agbabi and more, are joined by newly commissioned voices and some old favourites. Also featuring a new foreword from the Poet Laureate.