Warning (Hardback)
When I am an Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple
Buy from
Twice-voted poem of the year, Warning is an uplifting poem about growing older.
Voted Britain's favourite poem, 'Warning', written in 1961, is known and loved the world over for its message of old age as a time for indulgence and fun.
In the poem's respectable middle-aged woman, as she imagines herself in old age as a cheeky rebel with outrageous clothes and dotty behaviour, poet Jenny Joseph has created a character whose thoughts have been quoted at conferences and funerals, used to cheer up sick friends, remembered with pleasure by children and adults alike. Found in schoolbooks from Alaska to Singapore, the poem has been stitched, stamped, quilted, set to music, printed on cards, written on cakes and made into films.
Here 'Warning: When I am an old woman I shall wear purple' appears as a beautifully illustrated gift book, the perfect gift for a friend or relative who wants to grow older with joy.
Warning (Hardback)
When I am an Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple
Buy from
Beautifully redesigned with new illustrations, this is a gift book of Warning, the uplifting poem about growing older, twice voted poem of the year
'Utterly charming and uplifting' The Good Book Guide
Voted Britain's favourite poem, 'Warning', written in 1961, is known and loved the world over for its message of old age as a time for indulgence and fun.
In the poem's respectable middle-aged woman, as she imagines herself in old age as a cheeky rebel with outrageous clothes and dotty behaviour, poet Jenny Joseph has created a character whose thoughts have been quoted at conferences and funerals, used to cheer up sick friends and remembered with pleasure by children and adults alike around the world.
Here, 'Warning' appears as a beautiful updated edition with new illustrations; the perfect gift for a friend or relative who wants to grow older free from expectations, with a joyful and rebellious spirit.
Warning (Ebook)
When I am an Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple
Buy from
Beautifully redesigned with new illustrations, this is a gift book of Warning, the uplifting poem about growing older, twice voted poem of the year
'Utterly charming and uplifting' The Good Book Guide
Voted Britain's favourite poem, 'Warning', written in 1961, is known and loved the world over for its message of old age as a time for indulgence and fun.
In the poem's respectable middle-aged woman, as she imagines herself in old age as a cheeky rebel with outrageous clothes and dotty behaviour, poet Jenny Joseph has created a character whose thoughts have been quoted at conferences and funerals, used to cheer up sick friends and remembered with pleasure by children and adults alike around the world.
Here, 'Warning' appears as a beautiful updated edition with new illustrations; the perfect gift for a friend or relative who wants to grow older free from expectations, with a joyful and rebellious spirit.
Reviews for Warning
Mail on Sunday
Guardian
Allie Esiri Woman and Home
Good Book Guide
Jenny Joseph
Jenny Joseph was born in 1932 in Birmingham, England. She won a scholarship to read English literature at St Hilda's College, Oxford, coming top of her year. She published her first collection of poetry, The Unlooked-for Season, in 1960, which went on to win the Eric Gregory Award. Joseph's most famous poem, 'Warning: When I am an Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple', first appeared in her 1974 collection Rose in the Afternoon. It has remained popular ever since and was voted Britain's favourite modern poem in a 2006 BBC poll. In 1995 Joseph won the Forward Prize for her poem 'In Honour of Love' and her experimental fiction work Persephone won the 1986 James Tait Black Memorial Prize. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1999. Jenny Joseph died in 2018, aged 85.