This enchantingly packaged anthology provides a glorious introduction to some of the most enduring lines ever written in the English language and reveals that so many of our stock phrases actually have their origins in poetry.

Poet and literary critic Jamie Grant has selected notable extracts and poems from some of the world's greatest writers - from Geoffrey Chaucer and William Shakespeare, through William Blake and Elizabeth Barrett Browning to John Betjeman, Philip Larkin, Sylvia Plath and Wendy Cope - as well as introducing lesser known verses to surprise and engage the reader.

Presented chronologically, each poem or extract is accompanied by a short critical commentary giving succinct biographical details of the poet and the context for the work.

Lasting Lines is a charming introduction to the best of English-language poetry.