Speak, Old Parrot

Dannie Abse

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A new anthology of poems from one of Britain's most well-respected poets

2013 marks Dannie Abse's 90th birthday. In his lifetime he has published an astonishing array of work including poetry, fiction, criticism, plays and autobiography but it is as a poet that he is best known and loved.

In Speak, Old Parrot he returns to themes of loss, love, medicine and its moral implications, the nature of creativity, Jewish folk tradition and the passing of time. The poems are observant of the outside world as well as the inner life and emotions but most of all they are a joy to read.

Published: 4 April 2013
ISBN: 9781448164738
Imprint: Cornerstone Digital
Format: EBook
Pages: 80

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About the author

Dannie Abse

Dannie Abse was for many years a chest specialist in a London teaching hospital. A poet, reviewer and playwright, he has written and edited more than fifteen books of poetry, as well as books about medicine and also fiction. He is the author of Ash on a Young Man's Sleeve and several autobiographical volumes, including Goodbye, Twentieth Century, which was published in 2001 to critical acclaim. He died, at the age of 91, in September 2014.

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Praise for Speak, Old Parrot

What's the best thing about judging the Forward prizes? Free books? Reassessing a poet you hadn't paid enough attention to? Those are good, but the best might be the poems, and odd lines, that stick in your head. They may be from books that didn't even make the shortlist, but they've still made a mark – Dannie Abse's line "Men become mortal when their fathers die" from his collection Speak, Old Parrot, isn't going to leave me any time soon.
Guardian Books Blog

The phenomenal Dr Abse still prescribes verbal wit and human warmth, radiant memory and blazing perception, as remedies against a time of life when "all pavements slope uphill". This veteran flyer can still sing and swoop.
Independent

Dannie Abse's line "Men become mortal when their fathers die" from his collection Speak, Old Parrot, isn't going to leave me any time soon.
Sheenagh Pugh, Guardian

It’s a book packed with both feeling and swagger, a tumbling energy that belies the closing farewell.
Literary Review

There is much that could be said about this inspiring collection, and all of it positive. It should be bought, read and re-read.
New Welsh Review

Abse is still writing – and reading – at his mesmerizing best
Poetry London

Speak, Old Parrot shows that if art and humour will both be overtaken by death, they refuse to yield ground without a struggle. What will survive the endless nothingness is wit and love.
Terry Eagleton, The Lancet