George Szirtes has published his first children's book for fifteen years. In the Land of the Giants is a delightful mix of original riddles, mysteries, parables, strange encounters and cautionary tales alongside translations of children's poems from Hungary.
"This is a very dangerous book: it plays with words, with fire, with water, with animals - with anything and everything: even refrigerators and ice-creams. After I read it, the world wasn't the same again. If you read it, you won't be either."
Michael Rosen
London launch at the Poetry Cafe
22 Betterton Street, Covent Garden
Saturday 15 December, 4 to 5:30 pm
Admission FREE
The Serpent's Tail
Being so very unlike a man
It's hard to know where I began
or where my body stopped,
Some time ago my head appeared
my eyes grew narrow, my lips sneered
the rest of me just flopped.
I wriggle, belly on the ground
I straighten out, I curl around,
Now I, now S, now O
Try as they can they always fail
To tell my body from my tail.
They try and try to no avail.
But will I tell them?
No.
