{"title":"Neil Astley","description":"\u003cp\u003eNeil Astley's work explores the profound depth of human experience through poetry that is both accessible and emotionally resonant. His collections, such as \u003cem\u003eBeing Alive\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eBeing Human\u003c\/em\u003e, invite readers to reflect on the complexities of life, identity, and the art of survival.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eRooted in the category of Arts \u0026amp; Culture, his books often blend personal insight with universal themes, making them essential reading for those who appreciate poetry that speaks to the resilience and vulnerability of the human spirit.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"being-human-by-neil-astley-9781852248093","title":"Being Human","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eBeing Human\u003c\/em\u003e is the third book in the Staying Alive poetry trilogy. \u003cem\u003eStaying Alive\u003c\/em\u003e and its sequel \u003cem\u003eBeing Alive\u003c\/em\u003e have introduced many thousands of new readers to contemporary poetry. \u003cem\u003eBeing Human\u003c\/em\u003e is a companion volume to those two books - a world poetry anthology offering an even broader, international selection of 'real poems for unreal times'.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe range of poetry here complements that of the first two anthologies: hundreds of thoughtful and passionate poems about living in the modern world; more of the greatest poems of the 20th century; and also many recent poems of rare imaginative power from the first decade of the 21st century.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBut this book is also rare in reflecting the concerns of readers from all walks of life. Such has been the appeal of \u003cem\u003eStaying Alive\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eBeing Alive\u003c\/em\u003e that many people have written not only to express their appreciation of these books, but also to share poems which have been important in their own lives.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eBeing Human\u003c\/em\u003e has benefited from this highly unusual publisher's mailbag, including many talismanic personal survival poems suggested by our readers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47430125289708,"sku":"9781852248093","price":54.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9781852248093.jpg?v=1774559693"},{"product_id":"being-alive-by-neil-astley-9781852246754","title":"Being Alive","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eBeing Alive\u003c\/em\u003e is the sequel to Neil Astley's \u003cem\u003eStaying Alive\u003c\/em\u003e, which became Britain's most popular poetry book because it gave readers hundreds of thoughtful and passionate poems about living in the modern world. Now he has assembled this equally lively companion anthology for all those readers who have wanted more poems that touch the heart, stir the mind and fire the spirit.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eBeing Alive\u003c\/em\u003e is about being human: about love and loss, fear and longing, hurt and wonder. \u003cem\u003eStaying Alive\u003c\/em\u003e didn't just reach a broader readership; it introduced thousands of new readers to contemporary poetry, giving them an international gathering of poems of great personal force, poems with emotional power, intellectual edge and playful wit. It also brought many readers back to poetry, people who hadn't read poetry for years because it hadn't held their interest.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eNow \u003cem\u003eBeing Alive\u003c\/em\u003e gives readers an even wider selection of vivid, brilliantly diverse contemporary poetry from around the world. If readers were surprised by \u003cem\u003eStaying Alive\u003c\/em\u003e, the publishers were even more staggered by the postbag they received in response. People from all walks of life wrote to express their thanks and appreciation, saying how much \u003cem\u003eStaying Alive\u003c\/em\u003e had helped or stimulated them and fired up their interest in poetry. They hadn't just bought one copy; they'd bought many copies to give to friends and family as presents.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThey also wanted to tell editor Neil Astley about other poems which had been important to them in their own lives, and \u003cem\u003eBeing Alive\u003c\/em\u003e includes many powerful poems suggested by readers. \u003cem\u003eStaying Alive\u003c\/em\u003e has so far sold 75,000 copies. \u003cem\u003eBeing Alive\u003c\/em\u003e is eagerly awaited by thousands of readers throughout Britain and Ireland.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47470103101676,"sku":"9781852246754","price":54.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9781852246754-being-alive.jpg?v=1775211867"},{"product_id":"essential-poems-from-the-staying-alive-trilogy-by-neil-astley-9781852249427","title":"Essential Poems from the Staying Alive Trilogy","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eStaying Alive\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eBeing Alive\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eBeing Human\u003c\/em\u003e have introduced many thousands of new readers to contemporary poetry and have helped poetry lovers to discover the little-known riches of world poetry. Each anthology in the \u003cem\u003eStaying Alive\u003c\/em\u003e series contains 500 poems to touch the heart, stir the mind, and fire the spirit.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThese books have been enormously popular with readers, especially as gift books and bedside companions. The poems by writers from many parts of the world possess emotional power, intellectual edge, and playful wit. This pocketbook selection of 100 essential poems from the first three anthologies is a \u003cem\u003eStaying Alive\u003c\/em\u003e travel companion (also available as an e-book).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAs well as selecting favourite poems from what was originally a trilogy—readers' and writers' choices as well as his own favourites—editor Neil Astley provides background notes on the poets and poems. A fourth volume in the series, \u003cem\u003eStaying Human: new poems for Staying Alive\u003c\/em\u003e, was published in 2020.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis format makes it even more suitable as a gift book for all those people you're sure would love modern poetry if only they were familiar with these kinds of poems. These essential poems are all about being human, being alive, and staying alive: encompassing themes of love and loss; fear and longing; hurt and wonder; war and death; grief and suffering; birth, growing up, and family; time, ageing, and mortality; memory, self, and identity; faith, hope, and belief; and acceptance of inadequacy and making do... all of human life in a hundred highly individual, universal poems.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47558918602988,"sku":"9781852249427","price":39.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9781852249427-essential-poems-from-the-staying-alive-trilogy.jpg?v=1776921839"},{"product_id":"staying-alive-by-neil-astley-9781852245887","title":"Staying Alive","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eStaying Alive\u003c\/i\u003e is an international anthology of 500 life-affirming poems fired by belief in the human and the spiritual at a time when much in the world feels unreal, inhuman, and hollow. These are poems of great personal force connecting our aspirations with our humanity, helping us stay alive to the world and stay true to ourselves.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eMany people turn to poetry only at unreal times, whether for consolation in loss or affirmation in love, or when facing other extremes and anxieties. \u003ci\u003eStaying Alive\u003c\/i\u003e includes many of the great modern love poems and elegies, but it also shows the power of poetry in celebrating the ordinary miracle, taking you on a journey around many of the different aspects of everyday life explored in poems. A strong poem is not just for crisis. Such a poem is there for all times, helping us face or embrace daily change and disruption. It will also speak to us when nothing seems to be happening, when the poem's importance is in helping us stay alive to the world and stay true to ourselves.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eStaying Alive\u003c\/i\u003e has reached a wider readership than any other anthology of contemporary poetry. It is a landmark in the history of literary publishing. The first in a series, \u003ci\u003eStaying Alive\u003c\/i\u003e was followed by a sequel, \u003ci\u003eBeing Alive\u003c\/i\u003e (2004), a companion anthology, \u003ci\u003eBeing Human\u003c\/i\u003e (2011), and by a fourth volume, \u003ci\u003eStaying Human: new poems for Staying Alive\u003c\/i\u003e (2020). These anthologies have been welcomed not only by poets but by a wide range of well-known people respected for their work in fields other than poetry—all avid readers of poetry. They want to recommend these books above all other anthologies of contemporary poetry.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e'These poems distil the human heart as nothing else... \u003ci\u003eStaying Alive\u003c\/i\u003e celebrates the point of poetry. It's invigorating and makes me proud of being human' - Jane Campion\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e'Truly startling and powerful poems' - Mia Farrow\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003ci\u003eStaying Alive\u003c\/i\u003e is a blessing of a book. The title says it all. I have long waited for just this kind of setting down of poems - and the way they work together is wonderful - all come together to talk at the same table. Has there ever been such a passionate anthology? These are poems that hunt you down with the solace of their recognition' - Anne Michaels\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003ci\u003eStaying Alive\u003c\/i\u003e is a book which leaves those who have read or heard a poem from it feeling less alone and more alive' - John Berger\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003ci\u003eStaying Alive\u003c\/i\u003e is a magnificent anthology. The last time I was so excited, engaged and enthralled by a collection of poems was when I first encountered The Rattle Bag. I can't think of any other anthology that casts its net so widely, or one that has introduced me to so many vivid and memorable poems' - Philip Pullman\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eUsually if you say a book is \"inspirational\" that means it's New Agey and soft at the center. This astonishingly rich anthology, by contrast, shows that what is edgy, authentic, and provocative can also awaken the spirit and make its readers quick with consciousness. In these pages, I discovered many new writers, and I've decided I'm now in love with our troublesome epoch if it can produce poems of such genius' - Edmund White\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47598586101996,"sku":"9781852245887","price":60.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/69ecd9d47331828af2c35eb9cd1374f0.jpg?v=1778025815"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.co.nz\/collections\/neil-astley.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}