"Michael Rosen is one of our best-loved and writers for children. His poems for grown-ups are less well known, however. Don't Mention the Children is his first collection since Selected Poems (Penguin) in 2007. Fans of his children s books will enjoy the way these poems combine the silly and the sinister to catch the surrealism of everyday life, so
Although Michael Rosen is one of our best-loved and writers for children, his poems for grown-ups are less well known. Don’t Mention the Children is his first collection since Selected Poems (Penguin) in 2007.Fans of his children’s books will enjoy the way these poems combine the silly and the sinister to catch the surrealism of everyday life, somewhere between Jacques Prévert, Ivor Cutler and Adrian Mitchell. Few poets writing today can move so effortlessly between childishness and childlike seriousness.But at the heart of the book is a remarkable series of poems about anti-Semitism, Fascism and War, connecting the contemporary world – UKIP, Marine le Pen, Palestine (the title poem refers to the refusal of the Israeli broadcasting authorities to mention the names of children killed during the Israeli shelling of Gaza in 2014) – to the lives of Rosen’s parents and grandparents – the General Strike, the Battle of Cable Street, Vichy, Auschwitz.
Michael Rosen was born in North London in 1946. After university he worked for the BBC on Play School and Schools TV. He has written and edited over 200 books, including Mind Your Own Business, Wouldn’t You Like to Know, Mustard, Custard, Grumble Belly and Gravy, You Tell Me, No Breathing in Class and Quick Let’s Get Out of Here. You Can’t Catch Me! won the Signal Poetry Award. We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury, won the Smarties Prize. He currently presents Radio Four’s long-running Word of Mouth. Recent books for grown-ups include The Disappearance of Emile Zola, The Author, Workers’ Tales, Reading and Rebellion and So They Call You Pisher! and three Smokestack collections – Don’t Mention the Children, Listening to a Pogrom on the Radio and Mr Mensh. He was Children’s Laureate from 2007-9 and is Professor of Children’s Literature at Goldsmith’s, University of London.
Although Michael Rosen is one of our best-loved and writers for children, his poems for grown-ups are less well known. Don't Mention the Children is his first collection since Selected Poems (Penguin) in 2007. Fans of his children's books will enjoy the way these poems combine the silly and the sinister to catch the surrealism of everyday life, somewhere between Jacques Pr
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