Annunziata Reesmogg

There's never been a better time to read, relish and recite poetry and Gyles Brandreth has chosen 250 of the nation's favourite poems for us all to enjoy and learn together. THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'Gyles has discovered the secret of finding happiness through learning poetry by heart. It's wonderful and so much fun.' Dame Judi Dench __________ A little poetry really can save your life . . . Poetry is officially good for you. Not only does it enhance literacy in the young, but learning poetry by heart is the one truly pleasurable thing you can do to improve memory, boost brain power, extend your vocabulary and beat cognitive decline as time goes by. In Dancing by the Light of the Moon, Gyles Brandreth shares over 250 poems to read, relish and recite, as well as his advice on how to learn poetry by heart, and the benefits of doing so. Whether you are nine, nineteen or ninety, the poems and advice in this book provide the most enjoyable, moving and inspiring way to ensure a lifetime of dancing by the light of the moon - one joyous poem at a time . . . 'To instil a love of literature, a copy of Dancing by the Light of the Moon ought to find its way into every home in the land' Daily Mail, Book of the Week Poets include: A. A. Milne Benjamin Zephaniah Carol Ann Duffy Celia Johnson D. H. Lawrence E. E. Cummings Edgar Allen Poe Emily Dickinson George the Poet Hollie McNish John Cooper Clarke John Keats John Milton Kate Tempest Leonard Cohen Lewis Carroll Maya Angelou Monty Python Oscar Wilde Roald Dahl Robert Browning Robert Burns Robert Louis Stevenson Simon Armitage Spike Milligan Sylvia Plath T. S. Eliot Walt Whitman Wendy Cope William Shakespeare William Wordsworth And many more . . . DANCING BY THE LIGHT OF THE MOON IS AN OFFICIAL PARTNER OF NATIONAL POETRY DAY

The underground masterpiece of twentieth-century Russian fiction, this classic novel was written during Stalin’s regime and could not be published until many years after its author’s death. When the devil arrives in 1930s Moscow, consorting with a retinue of odd associates—including a talking black cat, an assassin, and a beautiful naked witch—his antics wreak havoc among the literary elite of the world capital of atheism. Meanwhile, the Master, author of an unpublished novel about Jesus and Pontius Pilate, languishes in despair in a pyschiatric hospital, while his devoted lover, Margarita, decides to sell her soul to save him. As Bulgakov’s dazzlingly exuberant narrative weaves back and forth between Moscow and ancient Jerusalem, studded with scenes ranging from a giddy Satanic ball to the murder of Judas in Gethsemane, Margarita’s enduring love for the Master joins the strands of plot across space and time.