May Day

The long-awaited collection from one of Britain’s finest poets, and a chronicle of activism in the UK over six decades.

At the core of this vital and wonderful book are Jackie’s activist parents, and the book is filled with marches, demos, protests, dreams of Peggy Seeger and memories of Hugh MacDiarmid pushing a pram. Here’s a beautiful writer at the top of her game and if I ran Britain I would give out copies on the NHS. It’s a sublime, joyous, pot-banging volume of genius

Jackie Kay is a distinctively Scottish voice in British poetry. In her new collection, May Day , accessible and gratifying, the personal and the political are seamlessly interwoven.

Jackie Kay is the people‘s poet because she puts language where it starts - in our mouths, and holds it where it belongs - in our hearts

What a timely reminder, as our right to peaceful protest is under threat, of the sense of community that comes from raising our voices together against war, injustice and oppression, of the power of protest, and of the joy of resistance. And threading these poems together, as always in Jackie's work, is love. Love of family, of friends and lovers, of art & music, of nature, of words, love for the world. This book made me want to fight harder, shout louder, stand taller and love better.

May Day is a page-turner. This collection presents her signature mixture of close-up scrutiny and wide coverage of past and present, short and long, personal and political, colloquial and literary, humorous and outrageous . . . May Day is a banquet, with interesting company on your left and right, especially the left. Dozens of dog-eared pages await my next return – most likely tomorrow.

Jackie’s poetry exudes warmth and generosity, while simultaneously inclined towards poetry as an ethical undertaking, something that impels the spirit while protective of the vulnerable. Jackie’s direct style has always tugged at the heart and soul, and the ethical mind of her readers . . . the most forgiving of analytical songsters currently at work.

Kay's impeccable musicality is a delight

Warm, wistful and full of impish charm

Jackie Kay was born in Edinburgh. A poet, novelist and writer of short stories, she has enjoyed great acclaim for her work for both adults and children. Her novel, Trumpet , won the Guardian Fiction Prize. She has published three collections of stories with Picador, Why Don’t You Stop Talking , Wish I Was Here , and Reality, Reality ; three poetry collections, Fiere , Bantam , and May Day ; and her memoir, Red Dust Road . From 2016 to 2021 she was the third modern Makar, National Poet for Scotland. She lives in Manchester and is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Salford.