Take This One to Bed
The poems in Antony Dunn's fourth collection explore the passions and tensions of how we live together – as neighbours, as families, as lovers, and as companions to our own various selves.
Here are stories of experience and imagination – of a man’s clothes taking on a life of their own, of a city overcome by an epidemic of weeping, of two goldfish left in an emptying house: touching and enchanting tales that combine bittersweet comedy with an unflinching account of human nature.
At the heart of this deeply affecting collection are poems that dwell on the domestic crises that define our lives, that tell ‘how our hurts come down … hard and without warning’, and ask how we might live with them.
Take This One to Bed is a memorable, thought-provoking and ultimately uplifting response to these crises, in a poetry ‘made delightful by the elegance of Dunn’s art’ (Acumen).
The poems in Antony Dunn's fourth collection explore the passions and tensions of how we live together – as neighbours, as families, as lovers, and as companions to our own various selves.
Here are stories of experience and imagination – of a man’s clothes taking on a life of their own, of a city overcome by an epidemic of weeping, of two goldfish left in an emptying house: touching and enchanting tales that combine bittersweet comedy with an unflinching account of human nature.
At the heart of this deeply affecting collection are poems that dwell on the domestic crises that define our lives, that tell ‘how our hurts come down … hard and without warning’, and ask how we might live with them.
Take This One to Bed is a memorable, thought-provoking and ultimately uplifting response to these crises, in a poetry ‘made delightful by the elegance of Dunn’s art’ (Acumen).
The poems in Antony Dunn's fourth collection explore the passions and tensions of how we live together – as neighbours, as families, as lovers, and as companions to our own various selves.
Here are stories of experience and imagination – of a man’s clothes taking on a life of their own, of a city overcome by an epidemic of weeping, of two goldfish left in an emptying house: touching and enchanting tales that combine bittersweet comedy with an unflinching account of human nature.
At the heart of this deeply affecting collection are poems that dwell on the domestic crises that define our lives, that tell ‘how our hurts come down … hard and without warning’, and ask how we might live with them.
Take This One to Bed is a memorable, thought-provoking and ultimately uplifting response to these crises, in a poetry ‘made delightful by the elegance of Dunn’s art’ (Acumen).
Praise for Antony Dunn:
“For all its seeming lightness of touch, Dunn’s poetry is very much alive to the slips and lapses that shadow any attempt to describe the world.”
— Times Literary Supplement
“Inventive and highly enjoyable ... shows us the world through a magnifying glass.”
— The North
“I’ve been a fan of Antony’s careful and precise verse for years; I think he really enjoys celebrating the uncelebrated, in a way that many poets threaten to but don’t quite bring off.”
— Ian McMillan, The Reader
“Dunn’s considerable talent ... rewards the reader with epiphanies, annunciations of light, poems refreshingly affirmative.”
— Dannie Abse
“An often unique voice ... subtle, thought-provoking and enormously readable.”
— Poetry Review
About the Author
Antony Dunn was born in London in 1973, and now lives in Leeds. He won the Newdigate Prize in 1995 and received an Eric Gregory Award in 2000. His collections of poetry include Pilots and Navigators (Oxford University Press, 1998), Flying Fish (Carcanet OxfordPoets, 2002) and Bugs (Carcanet OxfordPoets, 2009). In 2015, he was the editor of Ex Libris, a volume of selected poems by David Hughes. His own fourth collection, Take This One to Bed, was published by Valley Press in 2016.
Vital Statistics
Imprint: Valley Press
Edition: First (October 2016)
Paperback ISBN: 9781908853745
Catalogue number: VP0090
Page count: 68
Trim size: 198x129mm
