This is a message I received today from England. I think it's a worthy charity and a great book.

"Dear Editor,

I'm sending you a PDF review copy of The Book Of Hopes And Dreams.  It's a charity, poetry anthology, published to raise money for the Medical Aid (Afghanistan) appeal of the Glasgow-based charity Spirit Aid, which is an entirely volunteer run organisation, headed by Scottish actor and director, David Hayman. 

As a volunteer organisation, Spirit Aid are able to ensure that 90% of all the funds they raise go straight to the projects they are involved in (unlike most of the bigger charities whose admin and advertising budgets swallow huge percentages of all donations).

The Book Of Hopes And Dreams, which is a celebration of the human spirit (even in times of great adversity) has captured the imagination and hearts of some of the greatest living poets of our times; all of whom have freely contributed work to this anthology. 

There are contributions from Margaret Atwood, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, John Heath-Stubbs, Carol Ann Duffy, Simon Armitage, Tony Harrison, Alasdair Gray, Edwin Morgan, Penelope Shuttle, Anne Stevenson, Jon Stallworthy, Alan Brownjohn, Ruth Fainlight, David Constantine, Moniza Alvi, Cyril Dabydeen, Elaine Feinstein, Vicki Feaver, Michael Horovitz, Tom Leonard, Robert Mezey, Lawrence Sail, Jay Ramsay, Charles Ades Fishman, Geoffrey Godbert and Ian Duhig, amongst others.

I would be grateful if you could review this book on your website, or, if a review is not possible, to give it a plug.

The book costs £9.99 and is available from all good bookstores in the UK.  It can also be bought outside the UK via the publisher, Bluechrome or from UK Amazon.

I hope that what you see in the PDF copy will inspire you to buy a hard copy of the book, either for yourself or friends and family.  I hope also that you will be inspired to help to spread the word about the book, especially as Bluechrome are a small, independent publisher who do not have the sort of advertising or publicity budget that the major publishers have.

Anthony & Fiona (the co-proprietors of Bluechrome) and myself are relying solely on the internet as a means of spreading the word about the book.  We hope that those who come across it will not only be inspired by the stellar cast of contributors, but by the ethos and the book and the charity it supports.

We truly believe it is one of the best anthologies to have been published this century.  Not only is it stuffed to the brim with the work of award winning poets, but it's message is resoundingly positive and optimistic.  Something we all badly need to hear these days.

Not only that, but every copy sold will go towards providing mobile clinics, doctors, nurses and medicines for the people of the far flung, mountainous region of Baglan in North East Afghanistan, where the population hadn't received any medical care whatsoever for 25 years, until Spirit Aid raised funds for their first mobile clinic.

In reality, at least six mobile clinics are needed to provide even basic medical care for the people of Baglan.  With your help Spirit Aid will get closer to making that a reality.

There's a lot more info about The Book Of  Hopes And Dreams on my website at http://www.thunderburst.co.uk 

Thanks very much for all your support.

All the best

Dee Rimbaud."