Jenny Joseph reads her poem 'Warning'

Jenny Joseph reads her poem 'Warning', Britain's most popular post-war poem, according to poll conducted by the BBC in 1996. The second line of this poem inspired the formation of America's Red Hat Society, the largest women's social group in the world (which has over 70,000 members and almost 24,000 chapters in the US and 25 other countries) and encourages fun, friendship, freedom and fulfilment. Born in 1932, Jenny Joseph first published 'Warning' in 1961 in The Listener -- when she was 29 -- and later included it in her second collection, ROSE IN THE AFTERNOON (1974) and then in her SELECTED POEMS from Bloodaxe in 1992. Pamela Robertson-Pearce filmed her reading the poem in Ledbury, Herefordshire, in July 2008, during Ledbury Poetry Festival. Jenny Joseph lives in Gloucestershire. If you want to read 'Warning', order your copy of Jenny Joseph's SELECTED POEMS: http://www.bloodaxebooks.com/titlepage.asp?isbn=1852240954

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Jenny Joseph
• Red Hat Society
• Pamela Robertson-Pearce
• Bloodaxe Books
• Ledbury Poetry Festival

[AdrienneMarks]

its a great poem but i couldnt get sound what a shame

[hemu1en]

@AdrienneMarks The sound is fine on the video and on YouTube, Adrienne - must be a problem at your end. She does read it beautifully, so I'm sorry you weren't able to hear that.

[SoCalGirl24]

Does Jenny belongs to the Red Hat Sociaty?

[mintley8]

I read this at my mother's funeral, I'd giving her a copy for her 50th, because the minute I read it I thought of her.

[FirstStep2Foreva]

@FirstStep2Foreva ;)

[FirstStep2Foreva]

my drama exam piece

[Guard6777]

superb

[Gresaaa]

i loveeee helena bonham carter's reading of this

[megafist1]

Somebody should tell Jenny she should be wearing purple - now!