Pablo Picasso's Noël

'A sweet winter light blushedas Pablo Picasso walked his dogunder the cypress treesand the bell of the old chapel guessed at the hour.It was Christmas Eve.'Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy's new Christmas poem, Pablo Picasso's Noel follows the famous painter as he moves through a small town in the south of France on Christmas Eve, drawing the residents and the festive scenes he encounters. Accompanied by his small dog, he brings delight as he sketches wherever he goes. A wonderful, moving new poem capturing both the magic of Christmas and artistic inspiration.Beautifully illustrated and produced in a gorgeous small format, this is an irresistible festive gift and Christmas stocking must-have for all book lovers.

Duffy’s spellbinding verse, spiced with witty, wintry illustrations, recaptures a magic most of us left behind in childhood

Carol Ann Duffy lives in Manchester, where she is Professor and Creative Director of The Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University. She has written for both children and adults, and her poetry has received many awards, including the Signal Prize for Children’s Verse, the Whitbread, Forward and T. S. Eliot Prizes, the PEN Pinter Prize, and the Lannan and E. M. Forster Prize in America. Her other beautifully illustrated Christmas poems include Another Night Before Christmas, Mrs Scrooge, Wenceslas, Bethlehem, Dorothy Wordsworth’s Christmas Birthday and The Wren-Boys. She was appointed Poet Laureate in 2009. Her collections include The World’s Wife, Love Poems, Rapture and The Bees which won the Costa Poetry Award.