I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells And run my stick along the public railings And make up for the sobriety of my youth.

Her father's career led to the family relocating to Buckinghamshire, and Joseph was evacuated to Devon early during the Second World War.

First published in The Listener in 1962, "Warning" was later included in her 1974 collection Rose In the Afternoon, in The Oxford Book of Twentieth Century English Verse, and in her Selected Poems (1992).

The poem became well known in America after Liz Carpenter (formerly the first woman executive assistant to Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson and Press Secretary to former First Lady Lady Bird Johnson), wrote an article for the Reader's Digest in the early 1980s, about enjoying life having recovered from an illness, closing the article with "Warning".

The couple had three children – Martin, Nel and Bec – and ran the Greyhound, a west London pub, while Joseph continued writing.

From the age of 62 she exclusively wore purple clothing during the day until 1992 , when a family bereavement made her change colour to blue for a 3 month period of mourning.