In this volume Michael Rosen introduces Edwin Morgan's animal poems. Morgan's empathy with animals is well represented, from the still very topical 'The White Rhinoceros' to the prehistoric 'The Bearsden Shark' and the famous 'The Loch Ness Monster's Song'. Birds, beasts and fish, real and imaginary, are all here in this selection.
No 20th-century poetry has brought me more varied, intense and unfading pleasure than Morgan's. His is the song of our time - the living, not the dying, song which gives us our being
* Guardian *Edwin Morgan (1920-2010) became Scotland's first National Poet, or Makar, in 2004. His poetic output was hardly dimmed by increasing age; Collected Poems (Carcanet, 1990) and Collected Translations (Carcanet, 1996) were succeeded by several later volumes of poetry, including Dreams and Other Nightmares (Mariscat Press, 2010). He was awarded the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in 2000.
Michael Rosen is a writer and broadcaster who has produced many books for children and a few for adults, too. He lives with his family in Hackney, London.