Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, Winston Churchill, Marlene Dietrich and Jim Morrison are not normally remembered for their poetry, but all composed poetry at some point during their lives and their immortal verses have been brought together in a new collection 'El violín de Ingres' published today by the Municipal Book Institute in Málaga.

The new book includes Picasso's 'Trozo de Piel', a series of poems he wrote in 1959 and that were published in 1961 and then more or less forgotten by the literary world.

According to Rafael Inglada, publishing director, Picasso's poems demonstrate his 'fondness for his homeland, memories of Spain, of his childhood, of folklore and of Spain's classic literature, of which he was a great fan'.

Dalí's 'El Gran Masturbador', a long, surrealist poem written originally in French in conjunction with his painting of the same name, has also been included in the collection.

The chapter dedicated to Winston Churchill includes a poem about the Russian flu pandemic of 1890-1, which he wrote when he was 15, as well as other poems of a very 'personal and intimate' nature, says Inglada, like those dedicated to his wife, Clementine.

German actress and singer, Marlene Dietrich, composed her 'Short Tributes' as a way of paying homage to fellow actors like Ronald Reagan, Orson Welles, Ernest Hemingway, Noel Coward and Henry Fonda and they too have been included in this new collection.

The poetry of Jim Morrison was included at the express request of the editor, Juan Bonilla, who writes in the introduction to the volume that the singer 'also tried to be a great poet and got stuck as an adolescent poet, that is, someone who has plenty of time to tell his tale but who lacks the tools to do it'.  'Despite this,' Bonilla went on to say, 'he sometimes got carried away by his passion and wrote something truly memorable'.