Selected by Peter Davison with an introduction by Edward Hirsch. Sissman was a true phenomenon in American poetry. He published his first book, a collection of antic, autobiographical episodes in blank verse, in 1968. Eight years and three books later, he died of Hodgkin's disease at the age of forty-eight. Of Sissman's remarkable final poems John Updike wrote, "What other poet had ever given such wry and unblinking witness to his own dying? His poetry gave back to life more generously tha...

The poetry of Peter Davison, of which this is the ninth volume, covers a broad range of subject matter. Musical and supple, with rewards for the eye, the ear, and the mind, concerned as much with country as with city matters, Davison's poems move past personality. They open questions of identity, explorations of the natural world, personal and religious conflict, and the mysterious workings of memory. His poetry, such as the long poem "The Great Ledge," is especially moving and powerful wh...

Appearing for the first time in one volume, these trenchant letters tell the eloquent narrative of Orwell’s life in his own words.From his school days to his tragic early death, George Orwell, who never wrote an autobiography, chronicled the dramatic events of his turbulent life in a profusion of powerful letters. Indeed, one of the twentieth century’s most revered icons was a lively, prolific correspondent who developed in rich, nuanced dispatches the ideas that w...

His fans have spoken, but despite their requests, Peter Davison has gone ahead and written his autobiography anyway. It wasn’t the book they tried to stop – it was more like the book they didn’t want him to start. An aspiring singer-songwriter, once dubbed Woking’s answer to Bob Dylan (by his mum, who once heard a Bob Dylan song), Peter actually penned a hit for Dave Clark but soon swapped a life on the pub circuit to tread the boards.From colonial roots – his dad was Guyanese and h...

James Dickey, in reviewing Peter Davison's last book, Praying Wrong: New and Selected Poems, 1957-1984, said, ' Davison will not let things break him. His voice is his; he has earned it and can use it, and as a result is surely one of our better poets.' That sense of this poet's singularity is one of the great strengths of this new book; these deeply felt poems are uniquely his. From the almost unbearably moving 'Equinox 1980, ' which opens the book, to the delightful 'Peaches, ' The Great...

"A beautiful and richly instructive book, a worthy and welcome sequel to Eileen Simpson's Poets in Their Youth."Louis S. AuchinclossAn intimately perceptive account, by a poet who knew them all, of the brilliant circle of poets who lived and worked in Boston through the half-decade beginning in 1955. That was the year Peter Davison, coming to Boston as a book editor. was swept up in a world -- in a tumult -- of poetry. He rediscovered his father's old friend Robert Frost. H...

A major literary event—the long-awaited publication of George Orwell's diaries, chronicling the events that inspired his greatest works.This groundbreaking volume, never before published in the United States, at last introduces the interior life of George Orwell, the writer who defined twentieth-century political thought. Written as individual books throughout his career, the eleven surviving diaries collected here record Orwell’s youthful travels among miners and ...

What if, within every tragedy, adversity and setback in our lives, there is a blessing to unwrap? How would our lives then change? The stories in the Gift of the Hit collection showcase the strength of the human spirit through the accounts of amazing individuals, ordinary people who have embraced extraordinary events, and who have chosen to find the GIFT within their HIT.  

A collection of two of Robert Frost’s most celebrated poems in their original form: A Boy’s Will and North of Boston.The publication of A Boy’s Will (1913) and North of Boston (1914) marked the debut of Robert Frost as a major talent and established him as the true poetic voice of New England. Four of his volumes would win the Pulitzer Prize before his death in 1963, and his body of work has since become an integral part of the A...

"Peter Davison, for years, has pondered with clear insight the perspectives of affection, attachment, loss, and memory, his language spare and his tone classical and deceptively quiet. The poems of this new collection look at the same world with surprise and speak of it with a startled and startling freedom, feeling 'entitled to / the liberty of breathing easy'--a freedom that brings with it the old clarity and eloquence."--W. S. MerwinThe poems in Peter Davison's exuberant ...

Jon Pertwee, Peter Davison and Colin Baker are among the readers of these 7 stories from the worlds of Doctor Who. The Planet of the Daleks is read by Jon Pertwee; Warriors of the Deep is read by Peter Davison; Vengeance on Varos is read by Colin Baker; The Novel of the Film (the 1996 TV Movie) and Earth and Beyond (three original short stories) are read by Paul McGann. With original music. Duration: 10 hours approx.

Peter Davison reads this classic novelisation of a Fifth Doctor TV adventure featuring an old enemy.The TARDIS arrives at Heathrow Airport at a moment of crisis: a Concorde aeroplane has inexplicably vanished while in flight.The Doctor, Tegan and Nyssa join the crew of a second Concorde that sets out to simulate the fateful journey of the missing supersonic jet...but an old enemy in disguise is lurking at their destination.Seeing is believing, they say - but the Doc...