
You Took the Last Bus Home
The Poems of Brian Bilston
Brian Bilston(Author)
Picador (Publisher)
Published on 21. August 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
256 pages
978-1-0350-8663-4 (ISBN)
Description
'If you like a) laughing or b) words which rhyme with each other, you will love Brian Bilston' - Richard Osman, author of We Solve Murders
'There is poetry to be found in anything if you look hard enough.'
You Took the Last Bus Home is a collection of ingenious, hilarious and touching poems from Brian Bilston, one of Britain's funniest and best-loved poets.
With endless wit, wisdom and delightful wordplay, Bilston's first collection of poetry offers profound insights into the common joys and sorrows of modern life. Exploring themes as diverse as love, death, and the unbearable torment of forgetting to put the rubbish out, all of Bilston's poems are alive to the improbable nuances of the English language.
Constantly experimenting with poetic forms - from Venn diagrams to Scrabble tiles - this irresistibly charming collection of poems will make you ponder the very essence of the human condition in the twenty-first century.
'Bilston is a magician with words' - The Guardian
'Brian Bilston is a laureate for our fractured times' - Ian McMillan
**Brian's next book, How to Lay an Egg with a Horse Inside: An Alternative Guide to Writing and Enjoying Poetry, is available for pre-order now!**
'There is poetry to be found in anything if you look hard enough.'
You Took the Last Bus Home is a collection of ingenious, hilarious and touching poems from Brian Bilston, one of Britain's funniest and best-loved poets.
With endless wit, wisdom and delightful wordplay, Bilston's first collection of poetry offers profound insights into the common joys and sorrows of modern life. Exploring themes as diverse as love, death, and the unbearable torment of forgetting to put the rubbish out, all of Bilston's poems are alive to the improbable nuances of the English language.
Constantly experimenting with poetic forms - from Venn diagrams to Scrabble tiles - this irresistibly charming collection of poems will make you ponder the very essence of the human condition in the twenty-first century.
'Bilston is a magician with words' - The Guardian
'Brian Bilston is a laureate for our fractured times' - Ian McMillan
**Brian's next book, How to Lay an Egg with a Horse Inside: An Alternative Guide to Writing and Enjoying Poetry, is available for pre-order now!**
Reviews / Votes
If you like a) laughing or b) words which rhyme with each other, you will love Brian Bilston' -- Richard Osman, author of <i>We Solve Murders</i> 'Brian Bilston should be poet laureate' -- John O'Farrell, author of <i>Family Politics</i> 'Part John Cooper Clarke, part Frank Sidebottom . . . Brilliant' -- <i>Esquire</i> 'Bilston is a magician with words' -- <i>The Guardian</i> 'Brian Bilston is a laureate for our fractured times' -- Ian McMillan 'Someone who knows their way round both a joke and a bittersweet narrative' -- <i>The Times</i> 'Brian Bilston is bringing poetry to the masses' -- <i>Irish Times</i>More details
Edition
Main Market Ed
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Pan Macmillan
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 196 mm
Width: 129 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
176 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-0350-8663-4 (9781035086634)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
08/2025
Picador
€15.99
Available for download
Person
Brian Bilston is a poet and novelist. His poetry collections include You Took the Last Bus Home, Alexa, what is there to know about love?, Let Sleeping Cats Lie: Pet Poems, Days Like These: An Alternative Guide to the Year in 366 Poems and a festive collection, And So This is Christmas: 51 Seasonally Adjusted Poems. His debut novel, Diary of a Somebody, was shortlisted for the Costa first novel award. He has also published a collection of football poetry, 50 Ways to Score a Goal, and his acclaimed poem Refugees has been made into an illustrated book for children.