Celia Mitchell, Ripping Yarns

Celia Mitchell, from the second hand and antiquarian book shop Ripping Yarns, in Highgate, North London, recommends Unrespectable Verse, edited by Geoffrey Gibson, as the kind of anthology that will make you re-assess what poetry is all about.

"Geoffrey Gibson understood that poetry wasn't all sentimental tosh; it's about truth and changing the world; making us laugh; anarchy; socialism; terrorism… It will really open your eyes to the kind of things that you think poetry isn't about."

To prove the point, she goes on to reveal that one of the poems in the anthology was written about her:

Celia, Celia
When I am sad and weary
When I feel all hope has gone
When I walk along High Holborn
I think of you with nothing on