My name is Julian Reid, a gardener from Wiltshire, UK. The title of this book, Totally Unexpected Poems, is based on my experiences, from things that have happened to me, things I have seen or listened to and people I have met throughout my life.

She drew a long, soft breath, as though the paper daffodils between them were almost too sweet to bear

Katherine Mansfield was a magician of the short story, whose work was described by Virginia Woolf as ‘the only writing I have ever been jealous of’. These eight tales show her gift for transforming fleeting moments – a chance meeting, a letter received, a careless remark – into small miracles of language and feeling.

Liverpool Playhouse and Everyman theatres present Unprotected, the world premiere of a new play tackling the contentious issue of Liverpool's plans for a managed zone for street sex workers. This hard-hitting docu-drama, written by four Liverpool playwrights, Esther Wilson, John Fay, Tony Green and Lizzie Nunnery, who spent many months researching all viewpoints in what has now become a national debate for inner cities, allows the real people involved to speak for themselves. Directed by Nina Raine with a cast including Pauline Daniels, and Neil Caple, Unprotected is on at the Everyman from 10 March-1 April 2006."

Marlene hosts a dinner party in a London restaurant to celebrate her promotion to managing director of 'Top Girls' employment agency. Her guests are five women from the past: Isabella Bird (1831- 1904) - the adventurous traveller; Lady Nijo (b1258) - the mediaeval courtesan who became a Buddhist nun and travelled on foot through Japan; Dull Gret, who as Dulle Griet in a Bruegel painting, led a crowd of women on a charge through hell; Pope Joan - the transvestite early female pope and last but not least Patient Griselda, an obedient wife out of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. As the evening continues we are involved with the stories of all five women and the impending crisis in Marlene's own life. A classic of contemporary theatre, Churchill's play is seen as a landmark for a new generation of playwrights. It was premiered by the Royal Court in 1982. "Top Girls has a combination of directness and complexity which keeps you both emotionally and intellectually alert. You can smell life, and at the same time feel locked in an argument with an agile and passionate mind." (John Peter, Sunday Times)

The Editors of Irish Pages - Chris Agee, Cathal O Searcaigh, Kathleen Jamie and Meg Bateman - have assembled a new issue of the journal, entitled "The Anthropocene." It aims to evoke the escalating global ecological crisis in the round, through many of its key components, including climate change, deforestation, the treatment of animals, oceanic pollution and over-fishing, the melting of glaciers, extinctions, land-use, plastic pollution and the waste crisis, the eco-vandalism of mining and the fashion industry, the extermination of indigenous peoples and languages, biodiversity and ecocide generally, and so on - and on. * A certain amount of poetry and prose deals with humanity and human consciousness more generally, in their historical, cultural, psychological, artistic and religious dimensions. * There is also a special section devoted to writing on the Pandemic. * As with other issues, however, there is also work included that does not bear explicitly on the theme of the issue.

Step inside Louis' life like never before as he turns his critical eye on himself, his home, and family and tries to make sense of our weird and sometimes scary world. His new autobiography is the perfect book for our uncertain times by the hilarious and relatable Louis Theroux. Louis started lockdown with a sense of purpose and determination. Like the generation who survived the Second World War, this was his chance to shine. Then reality set in, forcing him to ask: When did he start annoying his children? Why is home-schooling so hard? Has the kitchen become the new shed, a hideaway for men, where, under the guise of being helpful, you can just drink, listen to music and keep to yourself? And is his drinking really becoming a problem? He also describes his dealings with Joe Exotic and flies to the US to make a documentary on the Tiger King, discusses his Grounded podcast, jumps back into the world of militias and conspiracy theorists as he catches up with past interviewees for his Life on the Edge series, and wonders whether he could get rich if he wrote Trump: The Musical.

Edited, introduced and annotated by Cedric Watts, M.A., Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of English, University of Sussex. The Wordsworth Classics' Shakespeare Series presents a newly-edited sequence of William Shakespeare's works. The textual editing takes account of recent scholarship while giving the material a careful reappraisal. Romeo and Juliet is the world's most famous drama of tragic young love. Defying the feud which divides their families, Romeo and Juliet enjoy the fleeting rapture of courtship, marriage and sexual fulfilment; but a combination of old animosities and new coincidences brings them to suicidal deaths. This play offers a rich mixture of romantic lyricism, bawdy comedy, intimate harmony and sudden violence. Long successful in the theatre, it has also generated numerous operas, ballets and films; and these have helped to make Romeo and Juliet perennially topical.

As the seas rise, the fight intensifies to save the Pacific Ocean's Marshall Islands from being devoured by the waters around them. At the same time, activists are raising their poetic voices against decades of colonialism, environmental destruction, and social injustice. Marshallese poet and activist Kathy Jetn-il-Kijiner's writing highlights the traumas of colonialism, racism, forced migration, the legacy of American nuclear testing, and the impending threats of climate change. Bearing witness at the front lines of various activist movements inspires her work and has propelled her poetry onto international stages, where she has performed in front of audiences ranging from elementary school students to more than a hundred world leaders at the United Nations Climate Summit. The poet connects us to Marshallese daily life and tradition, likening her poetry to a basket and its essential materials. Her cultural roots and her family provides the thick fiber, the structure of the basket. Her diasporic upbringing is the material which wraps around the fiber, an essential layer to the structure of her experiences. And her passion for justice and change, the passion which brings her to the front lines of activist movements-is the stitching that binds these two experiences together. Iep Jaltok will make history as the first published book of poetry written by a Marshallese author, and it ushers in an important new voice for justice.

Van Bientang het net die naam van 'n restaurant in Hermanus oorgebly: Bientang's Cave, asook 'n weggooi-opmerking: die laaste Strandloper. Uit hierdie gegewens sny die digter se verbeelding spoor in 'n kontra-epos. Wie was Bientang? Te midde van historiese geskrifte, kontemporêre angste en oorlewerings verskyn buitelyne om haar vir oomblikke binne bereik te bring. Die toonaard van die bundel is egter verlies oor 'n verlede wat geen spoor laat in die opgeskryfde geskiedenisse van die land nie. 

With an Introduction and Notes by Adam Roberts, Royal Holloway, University of London. Homer's great epic describes the many adventures of Odysseus, Greek warrior, as he strives over many years to return to his home island of Ithaca after the Trojan War. His colourful adventures, his endurance, his love for his wife and son have the same power to move and inspire readers today as they did in Archaic Greece, 2800 years ago. This poem has been translated many times over the years, but Chapman's sinewy, gorgeous rendering (1616) stands in a class of its own. Chapman believed himself inspired by the spirit of Homer himself, and matches the breadth and power of the original with a complex and stunning idiom of his own. John Keats expressed his admiration for the resulting work in the famous sonnet, 'On first looking into Chapman's Homer': 'Much have I travelled in the realms of gold...' This new Wordsworth edition of Chapman's Homer contains accessible annotation, and a detailed introduction that places his masterpiece in the context of his own day, and discusses its influences on later poets.