The Poetry Business School

When the Poetry Pharmacy made it to the finals of the Holly & Co Independent Awards in 2021, it caught the eye of Lush co-founder Mark Constantine, who loved its emporium of poetical remedies and bookish delights that delivers poetry to people who don’t usually encounter it.

Mark contacted Poetry Pharmacy founder Deborah Alma to say how much he loved the concept of her business. This was to be the start of a unique mentoring relationship and business collaboration, rooted in a shared love of poetry, that resulted in this book.

This book is an inspirational guide for how to do life and business better, and shows you a softer side to business that isn't all about the numbers. It shares Mark and Deborah’s conversations, insights, business acumen, anxieties, creative processes, and, of course, favourite poems. Alongside advice from business coach Kate Downey-Evans CPyschol throughout six illustrated chapters, this is one prescription you’ll want to keep on repeat.

This book encourages readers to embrace ‘business as a poem’ to learn how to tune into intuition, overcome fear, embrace risk, avoid burnout, and turn vulnerability into strength.

"I read the book in one evening — it’s warm and humane, and packed with wonderful poems (as you might expect)." Isabel Berwick, Working IT Editor, Financial Times