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.

Esiri produces and curates poetry apps, books and yearly shows at the National Theatre and major literary festivals. Esiri began with two bestselling 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 accompanying hardback and e-book iF: A Treasury of Poems for Almost Every Possibility. Esiri's first of her series of anthologies published by Pan Macmillan is the bestselling A Poem for Every Night of the Year which won the IBW Book award 2017. Her anthologies have been picked as best books of the year in the Observer, New Statesman and The Times.

Esiri's anthology, A Poem for Every Day of the Year was published in hardback and audiobook - with readings by Helena Bonham Carter and Simon Russell Beale - by Pan Macmillan on 7 September 2017, Shakespeare for Every Day of the Year was published in hardback, e-book and audiobook - with a stellar cast - by Pan Macmillan UK in September 2019 and by Penguin in October 2020 in the United States. A Poet for Every Day of the Year was published in hardback, e-book and audiobook by Pan Macmillan UK in September 2021; A Nursery Rhyme for Every Night of the Year was illustrated by Emily Faccini and published by Macmillan Children's Books in March 2023. The hardback and e-book of 365 Poems for Life was published by Bluebird Books, also Pan Macmillan, on 5 October 2023.

Acting career
Esiri read Modern and Medieval Languages at St Catharine's College, Cambridge, 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. She later appeared in episodes of Sharpe, The Bill, Goodnight Sweetheart, Men Behaving Badly, A Touch of Frost and Van der Valk.

In 1995, she played Lady Kiely in the television movie 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 parts 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 film Doomwatch: Winter Angel. Other acting credits include Dr Faustus at Greenwich Theatre, David Hare's The Secret Rapture, Twelfth Night and Macbeth directed by Michael Bogdanov for the English Shakespeare Company.

Literary career
Byrne ceased acting in 1999 to write and create poetry projects. She wrote freelance articles for publications such as American Vogue, The New York Times, and London's Evening Standard ES magazine, and now works in the world of poetry and technology. Under her married name of Allie Esiri she creates poetry anthologies, apps and shows. In 2011, Esiri co-created the successful poetry app, "iF Poems" and its accompanying book "iF, A Treasury of Poems for Almost Every Possibility". Esiri conceived "iF Poems" as an educational poetry app for children of any age. It was chosen to be in The Sunday Times Best Apps of the year list and in The Spectator's top ten ibooks of the year. Poems are read aloud on the app by Helena Bonham Carter, Bill Nighy, Harry Enfield, and Tom Hiddleston.

Esiri then created "The Love Book App" recommended by Apple and available on iOS platforms. It has 300 poems, quotes, letters and short stories on the theme of love, read by Helena Bonham Carter, Emma Watson, Damian Lewis, Tom Hiddleston, Helen McCrory and Gina Bellman. The app is illustrated by Kate Moross. The accompanying book was published by Square Peg, an imprint of Random House on 6 February 2014.

A new hardback anthology, "A Poem For Every Night of the Year", compiled by and with introductory paragraphs by Esiri, was published by Macmillan Children's Books in September 2016. In June 2017, it won the IBW 2017 Independent Bookshop Book Award and it was the top selling new poetry title of 2016 and continues to be at the top of the children's poetry chart with over 100,000 hardbacks sold.

Esiri creates regular poetry shows with readers including Damian Lewis, Helen McCrory, Samuel West, Dominic West, Helena Bonham Carter, Tom Hiddleston,Tobias Menzies, Dominic West, Emma Corrin, Asa Butterfield, Stephen Fry, David Harewood, Giles Terera, Tamsin Greig and Sophie Turner. "A Poem for Every Night of the Year" was launched at the National Theatre (the first of a series of yearly events) on the Olivier stage on 25 November 2016. It was reviewed in The Telegraph. Esiri curated similar events at the Hay Festival, Cheltenham Literature Festival, Edinburgh Festival, Oxford Literary Festival and Bath Festivals.

Esiri's second anthology of the series, "A Poem for Every Day of the Year" followed in September 2017. The Guardian recently chose it as one of their top ten poetry books and it was chosen by the chair of the National Trust as the book she would take her to her desert island on BBC's Desert Island Discs. A Poem for Every Day of the Year show at the National Theatre took place on 10 November 2017 - joining Esiri on stage were actors Adjoa Andoh, Simon Russell Beale, Joanna Lumley, Stephen Mangan, Helen McCrory and Samuel West. A Poem for Every Day of the Year was in The Observer, the Times and the New Statesmen books of the year. The audiobook is read by Helena Bonham Carter and Simon Russell Beale.

Esiri curated and hosted an event, Women Poets Through the Ages in November 2018 firstly at the National Theatre with Joanna Lumley, Helen McCrory, Kate Fleetwood, Sheila Atim and Indira Varma; then at the Bridge theatre in London in April 2019 with Helena Bonham Carter, Helen McCrory and Pippa Bennett-Warner.

Esiri's next collection, "Shakespeare for Every Day of the Year" was published in the UK and America and is available in hardback, e-book and audiobook. The readers for the audiobook include Damian Lewis, Helen McCrory, Paapa Essiedu and Simon Russell Beale – it was the Audiobook Pick of the Week in The Times. The accompanying live shows have featured Helena Bonham Carter, Emma Corrin, Diana Quick, Paapa Essiedu and Christopher Eccleston and there is a film, available on YouTube recorded during the lockdown for the Hay Festival starring Helena Bonham Carter and Dominic West, introduced by Esiri.

The anthology A Poet for Every Day of the Year came out in September 2021. The launch show at the National Theatre was dedicated to long-term collaborator Helen McCrory and was curated by Esiri and co-hosted with Damian Lewis. Friends of Helen McCrory joined Esiri and Lewis for the hour's show on the Lyttleton stage: Simon Russell Beale, Fay Ripley, Lesley Sharp and Danny Sapani. It was reviewed in The Times and Sunday Times. It’s available to stream free on National Theatre YouTube.

Esiri's anthology, A Nursery Rhyme for Every Night of the Year was published in March 2023. Poetry for Every Day show at the National Theatre, also available free on National Theatre YouTube channel, featured several readings from the book from Tom Hiddleston, Asa Butterfield, Kate Fleetwood, Sope Dirisu and Daria Plahity. The event was in aid of the DEC Ukraine Humanitarian appeal. A Nursery Rhyme for Every Night of the Year event was at the Hay Festival in May 2023 with Esiri, Helena Bonham Carter, Tony Robinson, Michael Rosen, Julia Donaldson, Malcolm Donaldson, Olivia Williams, Brian Bilston, JB Gill and Samuel West.

365 Poems for Life was published on National Poetry Day 2023.

Esiri sat on the advisory board of The Times/The Sunday Times Cheltenham Literature Festival 2014–2106, currently sits on the Children's Poetry Summit and is an advisor to the organisation National Poetry Day. She chaired the literary themed Secret Winter Gala for the charity Save the Children from 2013 to 2015 and chaired the judging panel for the CLPE poetry prize 2021.

Personal life
She is married to Mark Esiri, a partner in Venrex Investment Management, which he co-founded. They have three children.

Selected television credits

 * Doomwatch: Winter Angel (1999) - as Teri Riley
 * The Bill - as D.S. Hunt (1998)
 * Goodnight Sweetheart 1 episode - as Kate (1997)
 * Call Red - many episodes, as Alyson Butler (1996)
 * Men Behaving Badly 1 episode - as Jill (1995)
 * Sharpe's Battle - as Lady Kiely (1995)
 * A Touch of Frost - as Ruth Ormrod (1995)
 * Van der Valk, The Ties That Bind - as Petra van Leurink (1992)
 * Minder The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Entrepreneur and Three Cons Make A Mountain - as Lucy (1991)
 * Agatha Christie's Poirot - The Mysterious Affair at Styles - Cynthia Murdoch (1990)