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Enjoy free tea, chocolate & free postage with your Seren books this weekend

To combat the mayhem of the Black Friday weekend, we’re offering a dose of relaxation – when you order from our website this weekend we’ll include two samples of Morgan’s Brew signature black tea, and some free chocolate, when we post out your books. As an added treat, we have also scrapped our postage fees for the entire weekend!•
Trust us, there’s no need to go outside at all until Monday – simply have a browse here on the Seren website, choose some new reading material, and wait for your care package of silky chocolate and soothing tea to arrive through the letterbox.
•Free postage on all orders (excludes the Mystery Bundle: Fiction & Mystery Bundle: Poetry)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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Enjoy free tea & chocolate with your Seren books this weekend

free tea and chocolate Seren books

‘It is truth universally acknowledged…’ that Black Friday is awful. The crowds, the stress, the queuing – all in all, it’s a wonder we made it through.

Now, after braving that most dreadful of days, we feel you could do with come relaxation – and to help you on your way to post-discount bliss, we’re giving away free Morgan’s Brew tea and free chocolate with every order, as well as scrapping our postage fees for the entire weekend.

tea GIF

Trust us, there’s no need to go outside at all – simply have a browse on our website, choose some new reading material, and wait for your care package of silky chocolate and soothing tea to arrive through the letterbox.

Civilised Saturday free tea and chocolate

 

Free postage on all orders (excludes the Mystery Bundle: Fiction & Mystery Bundle: Poetry)

 

 

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Friday Poem – ‘Afternoon tea at your house is the otherness I’ve been chasing’, Rosie Shepperd

Friday Poem Afternoon tea Rosie Shepperd

Our Friday Poem today is an injection of calm into an otherwise mad Black Friday, from Rosie Shepperd’s captivating collection, The Man at the Corner Table.

the man at the corner table rosie shepperd‘Afternoon tea at your house is the otherness I’ve been chasing’ – a poem that settles you down and sits you in strangely rich and sweet surroundings: we notice the ‘butterscotch floor’ and the ‘careful coal pieces like strong oily truffles’ whilst all around the scent of sugar and brewing tea slowly builds. Sounds like heaven, doesn’t it?

The Man at the Corner Table is full of similarly delectable poems, where sensual evocations of food and drink take centre stage.

 

Rosie Shepperd Afternoon Tea Friday Poem

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you’re suddenly feeling in the mood for a nice warm cuppa, we wouldn’t be surprised.
Keep an eye on the Seren website tomorrow, as we will be giving away free Morgan’s Brew tea and free chocolate with every order to help you recover from the Black Friday mayhem. And, as an added treat, enjoy free postage, too! The offer commences at midnight tonight, and runs through ’til Monday.

 

 

The Man at the Corner Table is available on the Seren website: £9.99

Join our free Book Club for 20% off every book you buy from us.

 

 

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We’re all about self-gifting this Christmas with Mystery Book Bundles

Mystery book bundles

Unless you’re one of Santa’s particularly jolly elves, we imagine the countdown to Christmas might be a stressful and arduous experience. With that in mind, we’ve prepared some mystery book bundles – the ideal affordable self-gift! (Or, if you’re feeling particularly generous, a gift for someone else.)

Coming in Fiction and Poetry varieties, these lovingly gift-wrapped parcels contain three books from our fantastic Seren list – and are just £9.99.

Mystery Book Bundle Fiction
Mystery Bundle: Fiction
For the Fiction Bundle, we’ve chosen a mix of enthralling literary novels and absorbing short stories.

No matter what you get, you can expect to be glued to your comfiest chair for at least a few days.

 

Mystery Book Bundle poetry
Mystery Bundle: Poetry
For the Poetry Bundle, we’ve selected a blend of exciting debuts and powerful works from established poets.

We can’t tell you what you’re likely to receive as it would ruin the surprise, but we have a wonderful mix of things ready to wrap up.

 

 

Find our Mystery Fiction Bundle and Mystery Poetry Bundle on the Seren website – while stocks last.

 

Merry Christmas GIF

 

 

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A Christmas treat – Mystery Book Bundles

Unless you’re one of Santa’s particularly jolly elves, we imagine the countdown to Christmas might be a rather stressful experience. With that in mind, we’ve prepared some mystery book bundles – the ideal affordable self-gift! (Or, if you’re feeling particularly generous, a gift for someone else.)
Coming in Fiction and Poetry varieties, these lovingly gift-wrapped parcels contain three books from our fantastic Seren list – and are just £9.99.
For the Fiction Bundle, we’ve chosen a mix of enthralling literary novels and absorbing short stories. No matter what you get, you can expect to be glued to your comfiest chair for at least a few days.
For the Poetry Bundle, we’ve selected a blend of exciting debuts and powerful works from established poets. We can’t tell you what you’re likely to receive as it would ruin the surprise, but we have a wonderful mix of things ready to wrap up. 
Find our Mystery Fiction Bundle and Mystery Poetry Bundle on the Seren website – while stocks last.
 
 
 
 
 

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A glittering new festive pamphlet: Twelve Poems for Christmas

Twelve Poems for Christmas festive pamphlet

‘It’s not Christmas, it’s only November!’ we hear you cry. Well, we can’t help but feel a little festive as the new Twelve Poems for Christmas pamphlet is now available to pre-order.

Last year’s Christmas Poetry Competition was a huge success. Judge Amy Wack, Seren’s Poetry Editor, states:

The challenge of a successful Christmas poem is the same as a challenge of a ‘regular’ poem: both to embrace tradition and subvert it, to resist cliché.  I was looking for variation of tone, manner and address, for brevity, and for a certain sparkling something, suitable for the season.

The submissions certainly didn’t disappoint. From the entries Amy compiled a shortlist of twelve outstanding festive poems, and we have combined these to create the Twelve Poems for Christmas poetry pamphlet:

Pippa Little
‘St. Leonore and the Robin’
Winner

Helen Overell
‘Camel’

Cathy Bryant
‘Noticing Cards While Eating Stuffing’

Alexandra Davis
‘Offering’

Will Johnson
‘What Wish’

Sarah Rowland Jones
‘Gabriel’s Greeting’

Gina Wilson
‘A Child for Our World’

Nancy Charley
‘On Losing my Voice at Christmas’

Nicola Healey
‘Two Pheasants’

Philip Rush
‘Daylight is in Short Supply’

Sarah Westcott
‘Guardians’

Wendy Klein
‘The Usual Suspects’

 

The Twelve Poems for Christmas pamphlet is publishing on 01 December, but you can pre-order your copy now. Why not post it to someone you love instead of a card? That is, if you can bear to part with it…

Don’t forget: you can claim 20% off when you become a registered user on our website.

 

 

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Friday Poem – ‘Lear Father’, Paul Deaton

Our Friday Poem this week is ‘Lear Father’ from Paul Deaton’s recently published debut, A Watchful Astronomy.

Paul Deaton A Watchful AstronomyWelsh-raised and Bristol-based, Paul Deaton has produced a debut collection full of poems that are quietly precise, yet full of powerful emotion.
Deaton’s poems are finely attuned and alert to the tensions in relationships, partly attributable to a difficult father figure, ‘like a wounded bear’, who haunts much of this book – including our featured poem today, ‘Lear Father’. Nature is also a guiding presence in this collection, and is often embodied by a wintery landscape.
A Watchful Astronomy is a Poetry Book Society Recommendation for Winter 2017.

 

Friday Poem Lear Father Paul Deaton

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Watchful Astronomy is available from the Seren website: £9.99

Join our free Book Club for 20% off every book you buy from us.

 

 

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Free poetry alert – enjoy samples from all our 2017 collections

Free poetry Seren sampler 2017

Who doesn’t love a freebie? We’ve put together something a little special for  all you poetry lovers – the Seren Poetry Sampler 2017. This free PDF is now available to download, and contains a free poem from each of our 2017 collections.

It also contains an exclusive 30% discount code – so when you inevitably fall in love with all ten books, you won’t break the bank.

Free poetry pamphlet

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are a number of poems from striking debut collections: ‘Lake Fever’ from Polly Atkin’s Basic Nest Architecture, ‘The Coffin Hut’ from Paul Deaton’s PBS-Recommended debut A Watchful Astronomy, and ‘The Walking Wed’, Emily Blewitt’s Walking Dead-inspired poem from This Is Not A Rescue.

Experienced poets Siobhán Campbell, Martyn Crucefix, and Graham Mort feature too, with poems from fresh new collections: ‘Why Islanders Don’t Kiss Hello’ (Heat Signature), ‘R-O-M-J-X’ (The Lovely Disciplines), ‘Froglet’ (Black Shiver Moss), alongside ‘Closing Down’ from Robert Walton’s long-awaited second collection, Sax Burglar Blues.

There are also poems from two new pamphlets: ‘The Birds’ from Brood by Wales Book of the Year winner Rhian Edwards, and ‘Howlet’ by promising young poet Yvonne Reddick, from Translating Mountains, winner of the 2016 Mslexia Poetry Prize.

A final treat is ‘Hare’, a poem by Carolyn Jess-Cooke from the Writing Motherhood anthology, which brings together poetry, essays and interviews on the subjects of motherhood and creativity.

 

Download the Seren Poetry Sampler 2017 for free from our website.

 

 

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Win a copy of Dark Land, Dark Skies by Martin Griffiths

This cover shows a photo of a star filled sky over the dark silhouette of a castle. The text reads: Dark Land, Dark Skies. Martin Griffiths.

Enter our giveaway to win a copy of the hardback edition of Dark Land, Dark Skies, Martin Griffiths’ fascinating mythological astronomy book.
To enter, simply sign up to the Seren newsletter before 1st December:https://www.serenbooks.com/newsletter/signup
About Dark Land, Dark Skies:The classically named constellations and stars of the night sky haven’t always been the province of Greek and Roman gods. Ancient peoples around the world have looked up and added their particular myths to the heavens, only to have them subsumed by the Classics as the science of astronomy developed.In Dark Land, Dark Skies, Martin Griffiths reclaims the night sky for the Welsh peoples by repopulating it with the myths superseded by classical astronomy, particularly the mythical heroes and heroines of The Mabinogion.
 
The winner of this giveaway will be chosen at random from all our email subscribers on 1st December 2017, so make sure you sign up to Seren News before this deadline to be in with a chance of winning.
Feeling generous? Why not invite your friends to enter, by signing up using the link below:http://serenbooks.com/newsletter/signup
 
Congratulations to last month’s winner, who is now enjoying a copy of Sugar Hall by Tiffany Murray.
 
 
 

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Friday Poem – ‘The Romantic’, Katrina Naomi

Friday Poem The Romantic by Katrina Naomi

Our Friday Poem this week is ‘The Romantic’, from The Way the Crocodile Taught Me by Katrina Naomi, who has just been shortlisted for B O D Y’s ‘Best of the Net’.

The Way the Crocodile Taught Me is a heartfelt and tragi-comic portrayal of a fraught childhood and adolescence. Central to the book are two sequences: one about a quick-tempered stepfather – a 17-stone brute, “mostly in a temper”, and the other about a kindly but also comically old-fashioned grandmother.
‘The Romantic’ recalls the poet’s lost father, and the deep emotional fissures he left behind.

 

 

Katrina Naomi poem The Romantic

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Way the Crocodile Taught Me is available from the Seren website: £9.99

Join our free Book Club for 20% off every book you buy from us.