The Poetry World of John Agard

A towering figure in the poetry world, especially children's poetry, John Agard has chosen poems from eight collections (all now out of print) originally published between 1982 and 2001: I Din Do Nuttin; Say it Again, Granny; No Hickory, No Dickory, No Dock; Laughter is an Egg; Grandfather's Old Bruk-a-Down Car; We Animals Would Like a Word With You; Come Back to Me My Boomerang; and Points of View With Professor Peekaboo. Over 80 poems are included, reflecting the range of his interests, ideas and styles, and above all perhaps, his awareness of being a British-Caribbean writer in an increasingly multicultural society.

John Agard was born in Guyana and moved to Britain in 1977, where he was soon recognized as an original and inspiring writer. He has published more than 50 collections of poetry and received many accolades. He has been a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature since 2007. Awarded the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in 2012, he received the BookTrust Lifetime Achievement Award in 2021. He is a nominee (along with Jackie Morris) from British IBBY for the international Astrid Lindgren Award in 2025. He is married to fellow-poet Grace Nicholls, and they live in Lewes, West Sussex. Shirley Hottier was winner of the FAB illustration award in 2021. She is French and graduated in Paris with a degree in architecture. As an illustrator she has a passion for promoting diversity, drawing on her own family tradition of multiple cultures to create warm and lively scenes and characters. Shirley specializes in digital art, incorporating a rich palette of vivid colors and varied textures. She lives in Edinburgh.