18 Best Books on Poetry Anthologies: The Ultimate Recommend
18 Best Books on Poetry and Anthologies: The Ultimate Recommend.
such as Christmas Please!, Light Unlocked, Christmas Poems, Amazing Peace
Hi everyone welcome to my blog today I'm talking about 18 Best Books on Poetry and Anthologies.
I'm doing a follow-up to my previous article on cozy reads for Christmas and I'll be sharing my favorite Christmas anthologies and poetry collections.
I absolutely adore a good anthology over the Christmas period and as you know I'm a big fan of poetry too.
so I'm really excited to share some of these books from my festive collection with you all.
Famous Poetry Anthology Books
I'm excited about sharing these poetry anthology books with you and it's so fun to give which books you'll be reading over the festive period too so do keep reading.
I've said before books are such an important part of the winter holidays for me so I hope that whether you celebrate Christmas or not you'll still enjoy reading about some of the poetry anthologies that I love to read over the winter and particularly at Christmas time.
Best Poetry Collections
1. Christmas Please!: 100 Poems for the Festive Season
Christmas Please!: 100 Poems for the Festive Season by Dr. Douglas Brooks-Davies
first I want to highlight this beautiful poetry book called 'Christmas Please 100 Poems for the Festive Season' this is such a lovely volume I mean all of the poems are somehow related to the Christmas festivities there are some beautiful illustrations all through it
which I really love and it's just a really fabulous collection I've had it for quite a few years now and it's what I bring out every Christmas time.
Because there's always an old favorite poem that I return to and I also always seem to discover something new in it too and like I said I love all of the illustrations all the way through it
I think that they're really charming so if you're looking for a nice Christmassy poetry book then I really recommend this one because there are so many fantastic poems packed into this and it's a real favorite of mine.
2. Light Unlocked: Christmas Card Poems
Next up I rather like this little collection particularly the idea behind it it's called Light Unlocked Christmas Card Poems and it is it's a collection of poetry that a lot of famous poets but also just writers sent to friends of theirs as Christmas card
and there are some favorites of mine in here there's a wonderful Wendy Cope poem I think it's called Let the Christmas Spirit in something like that and there are some really nice ones in here but like I said I also just really love the idea of this it inspires me to sometimes send a little poem in a Christmas card to my friends and loved ones generally.
And I think that's such a thoughtful thing to do for people is to just write out a favorite little poem of yours if you're sending cards over December again there are some beautiful little woodcut illustrations through this too which I think are just gorgeous
I love them most of the poems are quite short because they are designed to sort of fit inside a Christmas card or like be sent almost instead of a card so a lot of them are quite short but it's just a really nice little collection and a favorite of mine too.
3. Christmas Poems (Faber Poetry)
Christmas Poems (Faber Poetry) by Wendy Cope
I also like to get some Christmas poems or poetry collections by poets by sort of a single poet that I really like wendy Cope is one of my favorite poets so I was really thrilled to get this collection of her Christmas poetry
and this is such a charming book I mean I love Wendy Cope I think that she's just a fantastic poet and this has oh it's called The Christmas Life I think that was the one I mentioned before by her the Christmas Life and that's in here too that's one of my favorite poems.
It's about the Christmas tree and the sort of joy that it brings and again there are some lovely illustrations I hope you can see that through this collection and just some really charming short little poems again I use this as inspiration when I'm sending Christmas cards
if I want to send a little poem in with the card or it's just something I like to have by my bedside at Christmas time so I can dip in and out and read a little poem each evening so I love this one.
4. Dorothy Wordsworth's Christmas Birthday
and again it's just really sweet there are some really pretty illustrations all through it which I really love so I love reading Dorothy Wordsworth's diaries actually and it's I think one of the reasons why I especially love this little poem.
I'm also a fan of "Carol Ann Duffy" and she does these fabulous Christmas poetry volumes I've got quite a few of them now there's 'Mrs. Scrooge', 'Frost Fair' and Pablo Picasso's Noel.
I do like all of them but that one's definitely one of my favorites by her and then I've got a couple more actually by her Bethlehem you can see that and The King of Christmas so I don't know if she's done more actually I'd have to check um but I've definitely collected quite a few
because I just think they're really lovely they're lovely little stocking fillers as well and she chooses different artists for each poem I think so they're always they always have beautiful illustrations which I love.
5. Amazing Peace: A Christmas Poem
And then I'm also a huge fan of Maya Angelou she's one of my favorite poets and so I was really pleased to get this really pretty edition of her Christmas poem amazing piece this is actually one of my very favorite Christmas poems it's really moving Maya Angelou first wrote it for the lighting of the tree in the white house I think in 2005.
It's a wonderful celebration in which she asks everyone of whatever faith to just come together to celebrate peace at Christmas time and it's really moving it's definitely one of my favorite Christmas poems so it's special to have this attractive edition of it.
Favorite Anthologies
1. Round the Christmas Fire
First up is 'round the Christmas Fire' stories from Nancy Mitford, PG Woodhouse, Stella Gibbons, Charles Dickens, and many more this is one of the vintage Christmas anthologies and I adore the cover by Emily Sutton I'll put that here so you can see it on the back I just think that's utterly charming.
Let me see when you can see that yes so this is one of my favorite anthologies I've had it for a long time but it contains many favorites of mine and it's one that I bring out every year I really like the categories it's Christmas chills, ghost stories for Christmas eve, the yuletide spirit, Christmas diaries, Christmas caroling, Christmas with the family, Christmas gifts, Christmas dinners, last Christmas.
So I really like those categories and there are great choices underneath each category so I highly recommend this one it is a big favorite of mine I've highlighted it quite a bit before my Twitter and so on but definitely wanted to mention it here.
2. The Big Book of Christmas Mysteries
And then this Christmas anthology is one of my favorites is one of my mom's very favorites actually she adores this one and it's 'the big book of Christmas mysteries and it's a really fabulous collection you can see there's a really extensive list of contributing authors and stories collected in this one there are some real favorites like a lot of 'Agatha Christie' and 'Ngaio Marsh'.
And I think there's the brother cad file Mystery some short stories from that and it's really good the only complaint I have about this one is that it's quite gigantic so it is a bit heavy it's a bit tricky to read in bed this one but it's actually really worthwhile getting
if you like mysteries at Christmas time and this is a really nice collection of them it's just it is quite hefty but it's really fabulous so we both love this one a lot.
3. Spirits of the Season: Christmas Hauntings
And then, of course, I love reading mysteries at Christmas time but it's also very classic to read some ghost stories at this time of year as well this is a great little anthology it's called Spirits of the Season Christmas Hauntings and there are just some really good ghost stories collected within here another daunt books bookmark you can tell that was a bookshop I went to a lot while I was in London.
So it's like e Nesbitt, Emma James, e f Benson, Marjorie Bowen, and jb Priestly a really good collection of ghost stories so if you want something a little bit spooky to read around this period then I would really recommend this one.
4. Christmas Stories by Secker Tesdell
Next, I always enjoy the Everyman pocket classics and their short story collections I really like I think I have their Paris collection and their food collection and of course, I have their Christmas story one too I love the cover on this because I adore Robin's so I think that that is really sweet but there are also some really good stories in here.
And there's a Christmas memory which is one of my favorite ones lots of actually really nice little extracts and stories in this as well and they tend to be a little bit more international in terms of their collection There are quite few Russian stories in this as well which I like a lot so this is a really nice little collection.
5. An English Christmas
And then in my previous article in this series, I talked about John Julius Norwich and how much I loved the Christmas crackers that he would do every year and I was so excited when this anthology edited by him came out it's called an English Christmas edited by John Julius Norwich.
And it says "vividly evoking all the good things about the festive season this unexpected anthology is just as entertaining about its darker aspects eight-year-old princess Margaret's surprising thank you list jostles with moving letters home from the trenches sherlock holmes solves his trickiest case George Orwell writes about indigestion, jane Austen about reluctant socializing and Thomas hardy about the old folk belief that all animals kneel at midnight on 24th December".
I remember that little short story from this one actually I love it it's a lovely story but this, in general, is just a fabulous collection it's a real favorite of mine and definitely a great gift for anger files I would say in your life as well really love this one.
6. The Faber Book of Christmas
And then another real beauty is the Faber Book of Christmas I just love this cover it's a stunning volume its fabric around here it's actually liberty fabric I love liberty fabric so this book is just so special not just for the contents but for the beautiful cover I just love this one.
It's a very special addition to my Christmas pile and there are some really lovely stories in here as well and there's a collection of poetry as well as sort of extracts a little stories and I think it's really nicely done it's a really lovely anthology I highly recommend this one too it's a real sort of classic one for Christmas which I love.
7. A Literary Christmas: An Anthology
And then I also love this little one published by the British Library and it's a literary Christmas and anthology and this one has a little bit more um unusual choices in it as well which I really like again there are some lovely illustrations all through it.
I'll show you some lovely color ones which are really special as well as some nice black and white drawings and there's some George Elliott Rudyard Kipling john dunnies sort of poetry as well as extracts and stories in this one too and I just think it's really beautiful I like this one a lot as well.
8. Christmas Holiday Book
And then this was a favorite from my childhood it's the Noel Stratfield 'Christmas holiday book'. I absolutely adored Noel Stratfield's stories when I was little ballet shoes is still one of my all-time favorite books and it's what set me off on my lifelong love for ballet so she's an author who is a really special really important to me and this is an anthology that she's edited I really like the Noel Chris.
The little stretch-filled Christmas holiday stories which I'm sure I'll be sharing in another upcoming article about my Christmas books.
But though that's a collection just of stories by her and this is a collection of lots of other writers so people like rumor goddamn for instance um Arthur Conan Doyle but really interesting choices for children and they're all stories there are some little illustrations in it which are quite sweet too
but it's a really interesting one and there is the odd little poem and thing as well but it's the main story and I just think it's quite a special collection I loved this one when I was little and I still return to it now.
9. The Penguin Book of Christmas Stories
And then there's the Penguin Book of Christmas Stories which also has a very striking cover I think this one is from Hanzi from Hans Christian Anderson to Angela Carter edited by Jessica Harrison and this one is a really good one too it's also a little bit different it's not just all of the standard things that often crop up a lot in anthologies
so there's Shirley Jackson is in here Chekhov's sake I love his short stories always and there are some great Christmas ones by him but this one is also fairly international in scope as well which I enjoy and there are some really interesting ones in here too.
There's also a really good Dorothy Altair short story which I was actually trying to remember where I'd read this Dorothy I'll say a short story before it's about a pearl necklace that disappears and lord peter whimsy solves the case and now I've just realized it's in here
so I'm good I'm glad that I know that now because it's one of my favorites to read at Christmas time it's quite a clever one but yes I love all of the stories in here and this is a great little bit different um anthology too so I love this one.
Vintage Anthologies
1. The Christmas Reader
So this one is an old favorite of the Christmas Reader compiled and introduced by Godfrey Smith it's a bit well-loved but I do love this because again there are a bit different choices in here.
That often crop up there's Lawrence Daryl who's Gerald Durrell's um brother is has something in here and there's a lovely Thomas hardy bit from under the greenwood tree there are just lots of really brilliantly chosen extracts there's some Willa Cather in here too who I really like some George du Maurier so there's some Shakespeare as well I mean it's quite wide-ranging and I really do like this collection so this comes out every Christmas for us.
2. A Children's Literary Christmas: An Anthology
This is the children's literary Christmas and this is really sweet as well so there are authors like Mallory Blackmon c.s Lewis Matt Hank Charles Dickens Laurie Lee a.a Milne
and it's really sweet this one has lots of lovely little illustrations sort of in the corners of the pages which I think is really sweet and then throughout like that.
And I think this is a lovely one not just for children actually but for adults as well because it has quite a few nostalgic entries like from CS Lewis you know the lion which is in the wardrobe and green Gables things like that so a lot of my favorite Christmas passages from my childhood are in here so I really do enjoy this one.
3. Happy Christmas
And then this is another vintage anthology that we have it's called 'The Fireside Book of Christmas Stories. I think this is actually an American anthology but I really like it.
I mean it's an old one but it has Merry Christmas by Daphne du Maurier in it. it's actually called 'Happy Christmas by Daphne Du Maurier' in here and has lots of quite interesting choices so I do really like this one as well.
4. ''GOOD HOUSEKEEPING'' CHRISTMAS BOOK
''GOOD HOUSEKEEPING'' CHRISTMAS BOOK: THE BEST OF ''GOOD HOUSEKEEPING'' AT CHRISTMAS, 1922-62' by Brian Braithwaite
And then finally this big one which is 'The Christmas Book' the best of good housekeeping from Christmas 1922-1963 this one is a favorite of mine because it has some contributions from some of my favorite writers like Rebecca West and Beverly Nichols is in here.
I think there's also a Dorothy Whipple in here if I'm remembering correctly but it's also just really charming to sort of see some of the old-fashioned sorts of advertisements alongside the stories and things.
I think it's just quite interesting to look through this and it's just quite a lovely collection to browse through and I find it really fascinating that you do see some of the old illustrations advertisements and all of that from the old good housekeeping magazines so this one is just really interesting for me to look through and there are some nice little extracts from writers in here as well.
Conclusion: Books on Poetry and Anthologies
But anyway, those are all of my recommendations for Christmas poetry collections and anthologies I hope you enjoyed my suggestions do let me know what anthologies you love to read at this time of year or if any of these take your eye I do hope that you enjoyed this I'll be back again very soon with more Christmas content.
I have another sort of part two for my Christmas cozy reads that I'm excited to share with you as well but thanks so much for watching do give this article a share if you enjoyed it and you can subscribe to my blog. I'll be back again very soon with another article, bye.
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About Muhiuddin Alam
Muhiuddin Alam is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of ReadingAndThinking.com. He serves as a consistent contributor to various websites and publications, including Medium, Quora, Reddit, Linkedin, Substack, Vocal, Flipboard, and Amazon KDP. Alam personally read numerous books and, for the past 10 years, has been providing book recommendations and reviews. Find Me: About Me & Google Knowledge Panel.
