Souvenir sweeps in for Milligan’s Dust If You Must

Souvenir Press has scooped Dust If You Must, a standalone poetry book by writer Rose Milligan.

Cindy Chan, editorial director at the Profile imprint, acquired world rights direct from the author. It will publish as an illustrated £7.99 hardback gift book and e-book with illustrations by Hayley Wells on 2nd March 2023.

“Dust If You Must was first published in the Lady magazine in 1998 and has since become loved for its perennial message about making the most of the time we have, urging us to focus on the things we love rather than the mundane things we think we need to do,” the synopsis reads.

Milligan originally wrote the poem privately and shared it with one friend, who then distributed it to the members of her choir group. One of the choir members then put it online. Milligan then sent it to the Lady. Despite the poem’s popularity on Instagram and now TikTok, Milligan never sought to be published. Chan approached her earlier this year to discuss the idea of turning the poem into a gift book. 

The poem has been read on BBC’s “Poetry Please”, at funerals, studied in schools, set to music by an Irish folk musician, shared on Instagram and presented on posters, tea towels and decorative housewares on Etsy.

“This beautiful poem is a true success story of the internet, shared and loved for many years, attributed only to an enigmatic poet by the name of Rose Milligan, who lived in Lancaster in 1998,” Chan said. “After all this time I am delighted to publish Rose’s poem as a standalone book, with illustrations that carry home the heart-warming message of her words.”

On recalling her discovery of the poem’s popularity, Milligan said: “I was amazed, it was my poem but how had another person come across it? There it was on my husband’s computer, attributed to ‘Anonymous’ and taken up even in the USA. Nothing I could do about it, but at least my eldest son did get my name attached to it, not that that stopped it appearing all over the place – in my granddaughter’s school in Stevenage, at funerals, in various publications. All I can say is that this poem has haunted me since 1998 so let’s hope you [Souvenir Press] represent the grande finale.”