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Poems That Make Grown Women Cry

About The Book

‘A deep and valuable collection that you could rely upon in your time of need’ The Times

Following the success of their anthology Poems That Make Grown Men Cry, father-and-son team Anthony and Ben Holden, working with Amnesty International, have asked the same revealing question of 100 remarkable women: what poem has moved you to tears?

The poems chosen range from the eighth century to today, from Rumi and Shakespeare to Sylvia Plath, W. H. Auden to Carol Ann Duffy, Pablo Neruda and Derek Walcott to Imtiaz Dharker and Warsan Shire. Their themes range from love and loss, through mortality and mystery, war and peace, to the beauty and variety of nature. From Yoko Ono to Judi Dench, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie to Elena Ferrante, Carol Ann Duffy to Meera Syal, and Joan Baez to Olivia Colman, this unique collection delivers private insights into the minds of women whose writing, acting and thinking are admired around the world.

About The Authors

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Anthony Holden is an award-winning journalist who has published more than thirty books, including He Played For His Wife…And Other Stories and biographies of Laurence Olivier, Tchaikovsky, and Shakespeare. He has published translations of opera, ancient Greek plays, and poetry. He was director of European Film and Television at Exclusive Media, where he helped relaunch Britain’s most famous film production label, Hammer. Anthony Holden lives in London.

Andrew Crowley

Ben Holden is a writer and film producer. He lives in London and studied English at Merton College, Oxford. With his father Anthony, Ben edited the bestselling Poems That Make Grown Men Cry and Poems That Make Grown Women Cry.

Product Details

  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK (February 25, 2016)
  • Length: 352 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781471148651

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Raves and Reviews

“The Holdens remind us that you don't have to be an academic or a postgraduate in creative writing to be moved by verse…I defy anyone not to enjoy the Holdens' book: It's plain fun.”

– Wall Street Journal

A deep and valuable collection that you could rely upon in your time of need’

– The Times

‘The art of poetry, as exemplified in this collection, transcends all gender issues, real or disputed

– Guardian

'This anthology has given me fresh pleasure in familiar poems and introduced me to exciting new voices'

– Sebastian Faulks, from his Afterword

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