- poetry from the margins by Janine BoothA full-length collection of poems published by Allographic in May 2023.

Making the breast of a bad situation ... On 4 October 2016, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. This blog charts my progress through treatment, and continued enjoyment of life, love and friendship. ​Btw, that picture is not me.

Janine writes books!

From the EU referendum to the Chilcot report, the floods to Oscar Pistorius, from the Queen’s birthday to the attempted dethronement of Jeremy Corbyn – 2016 was a huge year in politics and society. All these and more are chronicled in verse.

Published in April 2016 by Jessica Kingsley Publishers, this is an essential handbook for those campaigning in support of autistic workers and for autism-friendly workplaces. With a foreword by John McDonnell MP, it provides practical advice to tackle discrimination in a society where only 15% of autistic adults have full-time employment.

A book and a performance of poetry from halfway through life's journey.

The inspiring story of the 'rates rebellion' in the impoverished East London borough of Poplar after the First World War. Published by Merlin Press, 2009.

A biography of a daughter of Jewish immigrants who became a fighter for women's votes, against war and for socialism, who died shortly after a spell in prison as part of the successful Poplar Council rates rebellion. Published in November 2018 by Five Leaves.

33 of Janine's finest rhymes, published in February 2015. Buy it for just three quid.

The story of New Labour's disastrous 'Public-Private Partnership' on London's Tube, the resistance to it, and an outline of a socialist alternative. Published by Merlin Press, 2013.

Janine's poems have appeared in numerous anthologies. More information about them is here!

Published as the Covid-19 crisis really started to bite, this anthology was put together by Janine (with help from Attila the Stockbroker) and features over fifty poems by many varied poets.

An anthology of poems by neurodivergent (autistic, dyslexic, dyspraxic, ADHD, etc) writers, co-edited by Janine and others, and published by Flapjack Press in 2022.

Janine's collections of poetry. Or, collections of Janine's poetry. Whichever.

This poetry collection, published at the start of 2020, takes Tory Britain by the scruff of the neck.

In late 2016, Janine discovered a strange indentation in her right breast and was subsequently diagnosed with breast cancer.This book is a collection of candid and enthralling journal extracts, poetry, meticulous research and substantive politics, in which Janine details her journey from detection and diagnosis, through surgery, to ‘getting over it’.

Janine's second book of verse, featuring over sixty poems.

Too long to be articles, too short to be books

A slim (40 ages + cover) book telling the story of the near-revolutionary year of 1919.Published by Workers' Liberty to mark the centenary in 2019.

A guide for trade union reps, published by the TUC in 2014

Published by Workers' Liberty in 1999.

This pamphlet, published by the George Lansbury Memorial Trust in 2017, is a transcript of the lecture given by Janine the previous year.

Published by Workers' Liberty, 1999

Mine, and occasionally others'.

Articles about poetry and favourite poems by others

From sonnets to villanelles, limericks to ballads, the occasional rap and plenty of straightforward rants, serious and humorous and sometimes both, here is Janine's verse.

Janine performed poetry in the 1980s as The Big J. This section contains poems, articles and other bits n bobs from this historic era.

An acrostic is a poem in which the first (or sometimes, the last) letter of each line spells out a word or phrase.

Each stanza has four iambic lines, of four, three, four and three beats. The four lines rhyme abcb, and balladeers may use an internal rhyme in the first and third lines.

Some daftly-rewritten Christmas odes

Villanelles, sonnets, haiku, limericks and more ... Not all Janine's poems follow strict forms, but these ones do ...

Four lines, two rhyming couplets. The first line is the name of a person. The rhymes and the line lengths are allowed to be - supposed to be, even - a bit rubbish.

A golden shovel takes another poet's poem (or extract) and uses its words as the end words of the lines of a new poem. So if you read down the right-hand side, just the last word of each line, of the golden shovel, you will be reading the poem that inspired it. The golden shovel expands, develops or even changes the meaning of the original.

First: five syllables Next line: seven syllables Last: five syllablesThere are some other rules too, but I'm ignoring them.

Five-line poems, usually funny or light-hearted; the first, second and fifth lines rhyme with each other; the third and fourth lines also rhyme with each other, and are shorter.

A form of poetry comprised of a series of quatrains; the second and fourth lines of each stanza being repeated as the first and third of the next, until the last stanza, where the second and fourth lines are the third and first lines of the first stanza. Got that? Good.

Fourteen lines of iambic pentameter. The two most usual rhyme schemes are ababcdcd-efefgg (English/Shakespearean) and abbaabba-cdecde or abbaabba-cdcdcd (Italian/Petrarchan). The move from the first eight lines (the octave) to the remaining six lines (the sestet) often sees a turn in the poem's theme or 'argument'. Plus some fourteen-liners that are not strictly sonnets.

Eight lines. The first and second lines repeat as the seventh and last lines, and the first line also repeats as the fourth line. The rhyme scheme is  ABaAabAB, capital letters representing the repeated lines.

Quick quatrains with a rhyme scheme.

A nineteen-line poetic form consisting of five three-line stanzas (tercets) followed by a final, four-line stanza (quatrain).

In this section, you will find information about gigs past and future, plus a few videos of Janine performing,

Janine ran Spoaken Word Lewes for two years, from September 2021 - spelt that way because it took place at the Royal Oak, 3 Station Street, Lewes, East Sussex.

Janine performed as part of the Stealth Aspies theatre company, a group of autistic adults telling autistic life stories on stage.

Verses versus the virus by Janine Booth (unmuted).Published in April 2021, just after a year into the Covid-19 lockdown.