Downton Abbey Helps Push Poetry! Who Knew?

And all things literary too, according to the New York Times.

It seems British TV series export, Downton Abbey, is going down a storm across the pond. That in itself is not unusual. Strictly Come Dancing, Doctor Who and Sherlock, starring Benedict Cumberbatch (whose a Cumberbitch then? Check it out. They are ALL over the internet!) and Martin Freeman have all proved that point. The difference here is that publishers have realised that the viewers of Downton Abbey are book readers too. Stephen Morrison, the editor in chief and associate publisher of Penguin Books even shamelessly admits “We’re just riding that ‘Downton Abbey’ wave.”

It makes me feel somewhat caught on the backfoot (only joking!). I’m a huge reader but I’ve never watched Downton Abbey so don’t quite appreciate what all the fuss is about. And now it looks like poetry publishers are getting in on the act. Sadly, it seems poetry doesn’t have the power to bask in the Downton Abbey luminosity as much as prose.

Go figure!