Carol Ann Duffy

CAD , Britain's first woman Poet Laureate, has published thirty books, which as well as poetry include plays, works for young people, and edited anthologies. Early in her career she began winning literary awards and has amassed an impressive number. She now lives by her pen. Her poems are witty, unexpected dramatisations of human situations, attentive to gender issues and to issues of power misused. She alternates personal, even autobiographical poetry with dramatic monologues which assume other voices. Among these voices are the disturbing ones of criminals or psychopaths.

Milestones

23 December 1955

CAD was born in Glasgow.
Rees-Jones, Deryn. Carol Ann Duffy. Northcote House.
ix

1973

CAD published her first book of poems in her teens, before she went up to university: it was entitled Fleshweathercock, and Other Poems.
Rees-Jones, Deryn. Carol Ann Duffy. Northcote House.
ix

1 May 2009

News broke that CAD had been appointed Poet Laureate: the first woman to hold the position, though many brilliant women have been suggested for it.
Flood, Alison. “Carol Ann Duffy becomes first female poet laureate”. The Guardian.

Biography

Birth and Background

23 December 1955

CAD was born in Glasgow.
Rees-Jones, Deryn. Carol Ann Duffy. Northcote House.
ix