Ben Holden

The ultimate 'bedside book', an anthology of poems, stories, letters to read in anticipation of a good night's sleep

WHAT IS YOUR FIRST MEMORY? From the editor of the Sunday Times bestsellingPoems That Make Grown Men Cry, this unique collection celebrates the origin-stories and childhood epiphanies that shaped some of the greatest figures of our time. A magnificent anthology with contributors ranging from Einstein to Hawking, Churchill to Luther King, Pavarotti to Springsteen, Pele to Bolt and many more.

The Learn to Swim book is a superb how-to guide for parents and caregivers to teach their baby the basics of swimming and water familiarization in the lead up to, and in conjunction with, swimming lessons. Each chapter focuses on a new skill for the parent and baby to learn together in the bath or pool. The skills—illustrated by detailed photos, key learning points, and troubleshooting suggestions—are for beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels, catering to all stages of learning from those fearful of water to the most water-confident babies all over the world. This book can be adapted to bath time, pools, lakes, or beaches and shows what parents can do with their baby in a safe environment, paving the way for a strong swimming toddler. This book also addresses concerns new parents may have with a dedicated FAQ section that will also answer the age-old question: “Will my baby drink the water?” Finally, key safety information—including supervision, swim wear, floaties, pool fences, and a special chapter on babies with special needs—are all expertly addressed.

The perfect companion volume to sit alongside the highest selling poetry book of 2014, Poems That Make Grown Men Cry

There are few more precious routines than that of the bedtime story. So why do we discard this invaluable ritual as grown-ups to the detriment of our well-being and good health? In this groundbreaking anthology, Ben Holden, editor of the bestselling Poems That Make Grown Men Cry, challenges how we think about life, a third of which is spent asleep. He deftly explores not only the science of sleep but also why we endlessly tell stories – even to ourselves, as we dream. Holden combines his own illuminating storytelling with a treasure trove of timeless classics and contemporary gems. Poems and short stories, fairy tales and fables, reveries and nocturnes – from William Shakespeare to Haruki Murakami, Charles Dickens to Roald Dahl, Rabindranath Tagore to Nora Ephron, Vladimir Nabokov to Neil Gaiman – are all woven together to replicate the journey of a single night’s sleep. Some of today’s greatest storytellers reveal their choice of the ideal grown-up bedtime story: writers such as Margaret Drabble, Ken Follett, Tessa Hadley, Robert Macfarlane, Patrick Ness, Tony Robinson and Warsan Shire. Fold away your laptop and shut down your mobile phone. Curl up and crash out with the ultimate bedside book, one you’ll return to again and again. Full of laughter and tears, moonlight and magic, Bedtime Stories for Grown-ups joyfully provides the dream way to end the day – and begin the night . . .

The bestselling collection of poetry so powerful that 100 great men have been moved to tears

A life-enhancing tour through classic and contemporary poems that have made men cry: "The Holdens remind us that you don't have to be an academic or a postgraduate in creative writing to be moved by verse....It's plain fun" (The Wall Street Journal). Grown men aren't supposed to cry...Yet in this fascinating anthology, one hundred men--distinguished in literature and film, science and architecture, theater and human rights--confess to being moved to tears by poems that continue to haunt them. Although the majority are public figures not prone to crying, here they admit to breaking down, often in words as powerful as the poems themselves. Their selections include classics by visionaries, such as Walt Whitman, W.H. Auden, and Philip Larkin, as well as modern works by masters, including Billy Collins, Seamus Heaney, Derek Walcott, and poets who span the globe from Pablo Neruda to Rabindranath Tagore. The poems chosen range from the sixteenth century to the twenty-first, with more than a dozen by women, including Mary Oliver, Elizabeth Bishop, and Gwendolyn Brooks. Their themes range from love in its many guises, through mortality and loss, to the beauty and variety of nature. All are moved to tears by the exquisite way a poet captures, in Alexander Pope's famous phrase, "what oft was thought, but ne'er so well express'd." From J.J. Abrams to John le Carr , Salman Rushdie to Jonathan Franzen, Daniel Radcliffe to Nick Cave to Stephen Fry, Stanley Tucci to Colin Firth to the late Christopher Hitchens, this collection delivers private insight into the souls of men whose writing, acting, and thinking are admired around the world. "Everyone who reads this collection will be roused: disturbed by the pain, exalted in the zest for joy given by poets" (Nadine Gordimer, winner of the Nobel Prize for literature).