This book will be released on November 1st 2026.
Pre-orders are charged at time of order and the book will be posted to you as soon as it becomes available.
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Introduced by Charlotte Williams
‘An entertaining and at times moving book… affecting.’ – Times Literary Supplement
‘humorous and moving, insightful and vividly expressed in the most beautiful prose… Here we have a whole-life viewing of one of Wales’ most well-respected writers… as he documents trends and changes in the wider political and literary landscape of the day.’ – Charlotte Williams
Dannie Abse’s rich mixture of Welsh and Jewish backgrounds, and his dual occupations of doctor and author, have led to what is widely regarded as one of the most readable and poignant autobiographies available today. Goodbye, Twentieth Century incorporates Abse’s acclaimed first volume, A Poet in the Family, and brings his life up to the outset of a new century.
Dannie Abse (1923-2014) was born in Cardiff. He began his medical studies at the Welsh National School of Medicine and qualified as a doctor from Westminster Hospital, London in 1950. While still a student, Abse’s first book of poems was published and his first play performed. Further poetry volumes followed over the decades, culminating in his final collection Speak, Old Parrot in 2013 (shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize) and Ask the Moon: New and Collected Poems 1948-2014. His first novel, Ash on a Young Man’s Sleeve, appeared in 1954 and his most recent, the Booker longlisted The Strange Case of Dr Simmonds and Dr Glas in 2002. Three prize-winning plays were collected in The View from Row G (1990) and his autobiography, Goodbye, Twentieth Century, was published in 2001. Recognised internationally as a poet, Abse was President of the Poetry Society and of the Welsh Academy of Letters, and among his awards were the Wales Book of the Year for The Presence, the Wilfred Owen Award and the Roland Mathias Prize. He was appointed a CBE in 2012.