96 Pages
©2007
Publisher: Carcanet Poetry
Purchase includes: PUB, MOBI & PDF

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Sophie Hannah's sharp pen dissects modern life and relationships with insouciant honesty and ruthless wit, and her love poems evoke timeless feelings with a shrewd simplicity that deepens her range. An edge of desolation, tenderness - an occasional flash of cruelty - and an ebullient delight in language make this a book of bittersweet pleasures.

Pessimism for Beginners includes an extract from the opening chapter of Sophie Hannah's second psychological thriller, Hurting Distance, published by Hodder & Stoughton, described by The Times as 'a superbly creepy, twisty thriller about obsessive love, psychological torture and the darkest chambers of the human heart'. In poetry and prose, Sophie Hannah is compellingly readable.

'Shall I put it in capitals? SOPHIE HANNAH IS A GENIUS.'—Poetry Review.

'Sophie Hannah is a poet of considerable skill...A shrewd and accurate observer of the world around her, and of her own life, she is often very funny.'—Wendy Cope

'Sophie Hannah is one of my favourite young poets...she writes pithy, witty, poignant poems about love and relationships.'—Daisy Goodwin