Jenny Joseph Book order

Twice-voted poem of the year, Warning is an uplifting poem about growing older - now beautifully redesigned with new illustrations.

Jenny Joseph is known mainly as the author of Warning, her internationally renowned dramatic monologue in which a middle-aged character talks of her fantasies of old age. This collection of poems shows that Jenny Joseph's ability to convey the experiences of a 'thinking heart' is in no way diminished.

Combining poems with a thematic selection from other books, this collection explores the duality of existence, whether for children or adults, in poetry or prose. Dealing with the poet's attempt to present how things work at the core, it begins with poems from her last two collections, Ghosts and Other Company and All the Things I See.

Jenny Joseph was no ordinary poet - and Led by the Nose is no ordinary memoir. Shaped around the smells of the English countryside, it is full of the wilful personality and the sly humour that characterised the purple-clad old woman in her iconic poem 'Warning'. Joseph's eccentricities permeate each chapter as she flows through the gardening year with its chores and blossoms, frequently leading the reader off the garden path to stop, smell the roses, and ignore the world for a while. Full of the sensual awareness of Jenny Joseph's poetry, Led by the Nose is a singular memoir: a work of delicious diversion and literary flair, horticultural anxieties and countercultural tendencies, providing a glimpse - or sniff - of the landscape of this treasured poet's life.

As in her poetry, so now in Extended Similes Jenny Joseph shows the influence on human lives of the mechanical workings of the world, illuminating many human states, especially love.

Twice-voted poem of the year, Warning is an uplifting poem about growing older.

The collection features Jenny Joseph's award-winning poem, "In Honor of Love," showcasing her evolved poetic voice. Readers will find her signature "thinking heart," but with a deeper urgency and resonance. The poems explore profound mysteries and push the boundaries of language, offering insights from an introspective perspective. Joseph's work captures the nuances of unspoken emotions, blending a stony clarity with personal depth, inviting readers to engage with the complexities of love and existence.

Selected Poems draws on Jenny Joseph's first four collections of poetry, The Unlooked-for Season (1960), Rose in the Afternoon (1974), The Thinking Heart (1978) and Beyond Descartes (1983).