Cock crow : poems about life in the countryside

This anthology of poetry links together some of Michael Morpurgo's core beliefs for his tenure as Children's Laureate - the importance of reading for pleasure, with specific reference to a first-hand and powerful experience of the countryside and the natural world.

He has chosen poems that display a link between a physical knowledge of the countryside and of nature e.g. 'Digging' by Seamus Heaney and 'The Thought Fox' by Ted Hughes.

There are poems ancient and modern, from Virgil to John Clare, Andrew Marvell to Ted Hughes. And a wide selection of poems from nursery rhymes and anonymous poems to new writing from poets such as Carol Ann Duffy, Michael Longley and Alice Oswald.

This is an anthology for all readers, which, without reducing itself to the lowest common denominator, could be enjoyed by everyone.

Some poems could be read and enjoyed at a primary school level, and there will be others that can be grown into.