Allie Esiri

Allie Esiri (born 26 January 1967), formerly Allie Byrne, is a British writer, poetry curator and producer who is a former stage, film, and television actress. She is the daughter of British actor, Michael Byrne.

Esiri curates and produces poetry anthologies, apps and audiobooks with literary events at festivals and at theatres including a yearly night at London's National Theatre.

Esiri devised two of the first poetry apps: The Love Book, an interactive literary app on iOS with readers including Helena Bonham Carter, Tom Hiddleston and Emma Watson and iF Poems, an educational poetry app.

The first of her bestselling series of poetry anthologies published by Pan Macmillan is A Poem for Every Night of the Year which won the IBW Book award 2017. It has sold a remarkable 150,000 hardbacks in the UK alone. A collection of many of the greatest poems ever written, each poem has a daily introduction, written by Esiri. This series of anthologies have been picked as best books of the year in publications including The Times, Observer, Guardian and New Statesman.

Esiri's follow-up anthology, A Poem for Every Day of the Year was published in 2017 in hardback and an audiobook with the daily poems read by Helena Bonham Carter and Simon Russell Beale. The book and audiobook are recommended widely including by National Poetry Day and The Guardian who selected it as one of the ten best ever poetry books, The Times who chose the audiobook as one of their best audiobooks of the year, and by the head of the National Trust who selected it as her Desert Island Discs book on BBC Radio 4.

Shakespeare for Every Day of the Year was published in hardback, e-book and audiobook – with a stellar cast including Paapa Essiedu, Damian Lewis, Helen McCrory and Simon Russell Beale – by Pan Macmillan in the UK in 2019, Penguin in the USA in 2020 and Neri Pozza in Italy in 2020. Accolades include being The Times best audiobook: "Abandon Tweet of the Day for this excellently narrated daily dose celebrating the Bard. Beginning with the prologue to Romeo and Juliet (“Two noble households, both alike in dignity, in fair Verona . . .”) and ending with Prospero declaring, “Now my charms are all overthrown,” it will inspire you to revisit Shakespeare’s writing" ― The Times - Best audio books of 2019; and The Observer best books of the year: "Shakespeare for Every Day of the Year is persuasively pulled off in this daily dose of soliloquies, sonnets and snippets from plays. The book is nicely edited by Allie Esiri (like its predecessors A Poem for Every Night of the Year and A Poem for Every Day of the Year) and what distinguishes it are its fascinating, scholarly prefaces . A lucky dip for all ages and a handsome Christmas diversion." ― Observer - Best books of the year round-up.

A Poet for Every Day of the Year was published in hardback, e-book and audiobook by Pan Macmillan UK in September 2021. "If you feel as though your life is lacking a bit of poetry, this is an excellent place to start. ― Best Poetry Books of the Year, The Times. A Poet for Every Day of the Year does exactly what it says on the tin, presenting a poet for you to meet and take your time with every day; to savour, enjoy, read, re-read and return to, knowing that there’ll be another one along tomorrow. -- Ian McMillan, poet and presenter of BBC Radio 3's The Verb

A Nursery Rhyme for Every Night of the Year was published by Macmillan Children's Books in March 2023. Allie Esiri’s A Nursery Rhyme for Every Day of the Year is a brilliant idea and a splendid collection to read, recite or sing. Old and new rhymes, themed by month and beautifully illustrated by Emily Faccini, mean that any child of six and under will love it. -- Amanda Craig ― The New Statesman. Poetry pro Allie Esiri's collection of 366 children's nursery rhymes, including new ones and jolly illustrations by Emily Faccini, is perfect bedtime reading - for kids and adults. ― You Magazine .This lovely collection of 365 rhymes, charms and jokes is a gift to parents; a happy reminder of a more innocent age. -- Bel Mooney ― Daily Mail

The hardback and e-book of Esiri's uplifting poetry collection, 365 Poems for Life was published by Bluebird Books, also Pan Macmillan, on 5 October 2023. Reviewed in the United States on 13 November 2024: "This is an amazing collection of poetry of all kinds. The fact that each poem corresponds to an exact date of the year is good motivation to open the book each day."

Acting career

Esiri read Modern and Medieval Languages at St Catharine's College, University of Cambridge Allie joined Catz in 1985 to study Modern & Medieval Languages where she appeared in numerous productions, including The Winter's Tale directed by Tim Supple and an acclaimed production of Cyrano de Bergerac, directed by Sam Mendes, starring Tom Hollander and which also featured future deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg. Byrne's first major television role was in the Agatha Christie's Poirot adaptation of The Mysterious Affair at Styles in 1990. In 1992 she played Olivia in an English Shakespeare Company production of Twelfth Night directed by Michael Pennington and Macbeth directed by Michael Bogdanov.

In 1995, she played Lady Kiely in the television programme Sharpe's Battle, alongside Sean Bean and Hugh Fraser, with whom she had previously appeared in the Agatha Christie's Poirot adaptation of The Mysterious Affair at Styles. She played one of the lead roles in the ITV series Call Red (1996), a prime time seven-part series with an audience of 10 million weekly viewers. She also appeared in the Merchant Ivory Productions film, Howards End and the Kenneth Branagh film In the Bleak Midwinter. In 1999 she played environmental activist Teri Riley opposite Trevor Eve in the TV film Doomwatch: Winter Angel. Other acting credits include the hit sitcoms Men Behaving Badly and Goodnight Sweetheart, the TV dramas A Touch of Frost, Minder and Van der Valk, Dr Faustus at Greenwich Theatre and David Hare's The Secret Rapture.