Neil Astley

This lively anthology brings together two kinds of funny: humorous poems that make you laugh or smile (funny ha-ha), and strange, surreal, witty or plain weird poems (funny peculiar). There has always been a tradition of comic and curious verse in English poetry, but in contemporary poetry the peculiar has really come into its own, as this surprising selection shows, with poems on:

The Opposite Sex: Love, desire, romance, sex, men & women, adultery & celibacy.

Matters of Life & Death: Life, growing up, growing old, bums & hips, swearing & shaving, amnesia & the end.

Nowt So Funny as Folk: Shops & wheelbarrows, poets & artists, jobs and jobless, war & oppression.

Peculiar Places: Skunks in America, England & Scotland, curries & selfies, Armageddon & colonic irrigation.

Sounds True: Lies & beliefs, Popes & poodles, fire alarms, tennis, rain, static, and Country & Western music.

Animal Magic: Goats, sheep, chickens, yaks, cows, bison, horses, herons, chameleons & crustaceans. And people…

Words & Worse: Adages & proverbs, curses & clichés, slang & swearing. Anti-proverbs butter all your parsnips.

‘Bin all your pills, potions and herbal remedies. If you’re looking for a proper tonic then let Hexham’s ever reliable Bloodaxe Books sort you out with their latest anthology which collects together both laugh out loud poetry, and poetry which – in the peculiarly English tradition – takes a weird, or surreal turn: the ode less travelled… Lovely stuff.’ – The Crack