Michael Rosen
Michael Rosen's favourite line from a book comes from Series 4
This is an anonymous poem that comes from the time when lords of the manor were enclosing common land, and it goes like this: ‘The law locks up the man or woman, who steals the goose from off the common but leaves the greater villain loose, who steals the common from the goose.’ I love the way the poem is so tight, and those words are contrasted so beautifully – common and goose and villain and loose – and the way in which the meaning is left ‘til that very last word, ‘steals the common from the … goose’. Excellent!
