Robert Louis Stevenson sits alongside Langston Hughes; Lewis Caroll with Carol Ann Duffy; AA Milne with David Harmer. I was expecting them all to be ‘fluffy’ or positive poems for the days and was pleasantly surprised when they are a mixture of childhood known names and poems true to their words talking on honest and sad subjects.

My only criticism (and it's a serious one) is that the 'introductions' which have been written for each poem, placed immediately after the title, often derail or upstage the poem.Along with its companion volume, A Poem For Every Night of the Year, this is a wonderful way to introduce poetry to students of any age, and to give them a broad selection of poets from Shakespeare to AA Milne to Sappho to William Carlos Williams to Ella Wheeler Wilcox. We use it to help uscome to terms with the big things in life: love, friendship, loss, nature, beauty and the passing of time. A friend bought this for me for Christmas last year, and I can honestly say it’s one of the best presents I’ve ever received. Every night, if you want, you can soothe them with lullabies, educate them (gently) on how to count or learn history, or merely enjoy some slapstick knockabout humour. I can highly recommend this volume; but more than that, I can recommend consuming a tiny bit of poetry every day.

Although I still feel like I do not totally understand or enjoy poems as I should I did enjoy getting exposed to many different authors and many different ideas. Looking back now, I can say that one thing I would have done a little different is that I would have made this book more colourful in and of itself. Six Parkinson's sufferers with careers in the public eye join forces for a podcast broadcast from the pub, with chats both heartwarming, wry and useful.

Started with this because I'm not a poetry person and I wanted to try and see if that was just lack of exposure or if it's just not for me. She has hosted poetry events at The Times and the Sunday Times Cheltenham Literature Festival, The Sunday Times Festival of Education and The Oldie Soho Literary Festival. Reading poetry is a great habit to expand both the reading and writing mind, and though I do enjoy it, I don’t reach for it nearly often enough. Back in its original commedia dell’arte days, there were characters included who were far worse than Punch, like the devil and a hangman. Again and again, James reminds us that he is not only a poet of effortless wit and lyric accomplishment: he is also an immensely wise one, who delights in using poetic form to bring a razor-sharp focus to his thought.