Description
A book of poems about best friendships between women, examining and celebrating this most intense, rewarding, devastating and enduring of relationships.
If you’ve ever thanked your lucky stars for your best friends or experienced the heartache of losing a best friend, this is the book for you. Amy Key has collected poems about firm friendships forged in childhood, fierce loyalties and even fiercer falling-outs, shining a light on this bond that defines the social and emotional lives of many young girls and continues to have an impact into adulthood.
Best Friends Forever is the perfect gift for the BFFs in your life. The colourful cover evokes gel pens, highlighters and friendship bracelets.
With poems by Rachael Allen, Emily Berry, Liz Berry, Julia Bird, Sophia Blackwell, Sophie Collins, Nia Davies, Francine Elena, Annie Freud, Sophie Herxheimer, Holly Hopkins, Emma Jeremy, Suzanne Joinson, Angela Kirby, Fran Lock, Amy Mackelden, Sharanya Manivannan, Kathryn Maris, Karen McCarthy Woolf, Rebecca Perry, Rachel Piercey, Kathy Pimlott, Andrea Quinlan, Jacqueline Saphra, Brenda Shaughnessy, Catherine Smith, Martha Sprackland, Camellia Stafford, Claire Trévien, Megan Watkins, Laura Webb and Alison Winch.
Reviews
‘Best Friends Forever is a moving, funny, wise and important showcase of intense sisterhood.’ — Emma Jane Unsworth, author of Animals
‘There’s a good mix of known and less known names, and just about everything is quotable. Liz Berry and Kathryn Maris both have stand-out contributions, the former passionately longing, the latter witty and sophisticated. […] There’s refreshingly little irony but plenty of love, excitement, sadness or disillusionment for any reader to empathise with, not to mention all the nearly-shared experience. As Amy Key says in her heartfelt introduction, the “magic force” of empathy is at the heart of the best friendships.’ — Fiona Moore for Sabotage Reviews
‘The anthology did not disappoint. Although there is certainly no shortage of clothes and make-up, here, there is also rock music and cars and violence and adventure. The poems got me thinking about my own friendships and how they have changed over the years, and they got me wondering why, as is pointed out in Jacqueline Saphra’s brilliant poem, ‘Catharsis’, it is so ‘hard [. . .] to make new friends once you reach / a certain age’. […] What Amy Key and The Emma Press have done is to shine a light on a vital and sustaining part of women’s lives, and an often undocumented one. This anthology would make a great gift to a good friend, but it is also a valuable aid in considering the importance of one’s own friendships, past and present.’ — Penelope Price for For Books’ Sake
