This two-volume anthology celebrates four centuries of English poetry, from the Elizabethan era to the present day. This, the second of the two volumes, includes, Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, Keates, Tennyson, Browning, Yeates, Betjeman, Auden, Larkin, Hughes and Heaney, together with a generous selection from less-renowned writers.

These plays cover one thousand years of the ancient world from the golden age of Athens to 5th century Alexandria. The protagonists are Anaxagoras, Archimedes and Hypatia, scientists, mathematicians, philosophers. All three of them came into conflict with the prevalent views of the time. Anaxagoras maintained that the sun was a big burning rock of the size of the Peleponnesus. He was condemned to death on the charge of impiety. Archimedes, the first example of the efficacy of technology combined with science, built fortifications that could withstand the might of the Roman Army. His popular fame rests on him shouting Eureka and jumping naked out of his bath when he discovered the laws of Hydrostatics. He is also known by his statement: 'give me a fixed point and I shall move the Earth.' Hypatia was a philosopher and mathematician, a believer in the old faith. She was hacked to death by a bunch of monks at the instigation of Cyril, a Saint of the Christian Church.

' A] triumph of mature observation and art.' - "Daily Telegraph"
'A winter's tale of light and laughter.' - "Sunday Times"
'What is especially enjoyable is the rough-edged tenderness and kindness of Mr Wain's concern ... probably his most substantial achievement to date.' - Robert Nye, "Saturday Times Review"
' S]ubstantial and serious ... sustains a vigorous narrative line - he has always been an excellent storyteller.' - "Times Literary Supplement"
' A] love affair between its author and North Wales itself.... It is a novel with its heart in the right place, and it knows where the right place is.' - "The Observer"
'Clever and entertaining.' - "The Guardian"
Roger Furnivall is a forty-year-old philologist with no money and no sex life. But he thinks he's found a way to solve both problems: a cushy university post in Sweden pays well and promises access to plenty of beautiful blondes. There's just one catch: the job requires a knowledge of Welsh. Taking a sabbatical in North Wales to learn the language, Roger expects a long and dreary winter of linguistic study, but instead quickly finds himself drawn into the drama of local affairs. A large corporation seeking a monopoly has squeezed every bus operator out of business but one: taciturn hunchback Gareth Jones is the lone holdout. Seeing in this one man's struggle for survival against the faceless forces of corporate greed a problem more important than any he has ever faced, Roger is moved to help. But when the company's hired thugs begin to make attempts on his life, Roger discovers that his winter in the hills may end up being much more than he had bargained for ...
John Wain (1925-1994) catapulted to fame with "Hurry on Down" (1953), the defining novel of what the media called the 'Angry Young Men' movement, but it was in his later works, in which he explored the unresolved place of the individual in a world of social change driven by abstract and impersonal economics, that he was at his best. This edition of "A Winter in the Hills" (1970), one of his finest novels, includes a new foreword by Will Wain.

'A classic.' - Susan Hill, author of "The Woman in Black" and "I'm King of the Castle"
'John Wain's best novel in a long time . . . an interesting story . . . stunning.' - "The Observer"
'John Wain's contribution to the gathering army of lone, upset figures is a notable one.' - William Trevor, "Books and Bookmen"
'Harrowing but deeply compassionate . . . marks a new and impressive development in Mr. Wain's writing.' "British Book News"
'This searching novel throws a critical spotlight on the life that the modern world compels us to lead.' - "Encounter"
Arthur Geary, a 45-year-old research scientist, quits his job and leaves his wife and children, taking up residence in a hotel near Paddington Station, where he passes all his time sitting on the platforms, watching the people and trains come and go. Overwhelmed by the stresses of modern life, including his difficult job and failing marriage, Geary finds the limitless sky of London unbearable and seeks refuge beneath the 'smaller sky' of the glass-roofed station. But when friends and family become concerned with his unusual behaviour, and he begins to be hounded by psychiatrists and television reporters, Geary's search for peace and freedom becomes increasingly desperate . . .
One of the great English men of letters of the 20th century, John Wain (1925-1994) won almost every major British literary award during a career that spanned five decades, and his works are now being rediscovered. "The Smaller Sky" (1967), a classic novel of alienation and despair, is one of Wain's most enduring achievements and returns to print for the first time in more than 35 years. This edition includes a new introduction by Alice Ferrebe.