Carol Ann Duffy - Introduction

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Carol Ann Duffy Introduction This guide gives detailed readings of poems by Carol Ann Duffy, with ideas for study. On this page I use red type for emphasis. Brown type is used where italics would appear in print. | About the poet Carol Ann Duffy was born on December 23 1955, in Glasgow, Scotland's largest city. Carol Ann was the eldest child, and had four brothers. She was brought up in Stafford, in the north midlands, where her father was a local councillor, a parliamentary candidate for the Labour Party in 1983 and manager of Stafford FC, an amateur football team. Carol Ann Duffy was educated at St. Austin Roman Catholic Primary School, St. Joseph's Convent School and Stafford Girls' High School. In 1974 she went Liverpool University, where she read philosophy. She has worked as a freelance writer in London, after which she moved to live in Manchester, where she currently (2002) teaches creative writing at the Metropolitan University. Her first collection of poetry was Standing Female Nude (1985), followed by Selling Manhattan (1987), The Other Country (1990), Mean Time (1993), The World's Wife (1999) and The Feminine Gospels (2002). She has also written two English versions of Grimm's folk tales, and a pamphlet, A Woman's Guide to Gambling, which reflects her interest in betting. Of her own writing she has said: “I'm not interested, as a poet, in words like 'plash' - Seamus Heaney words, interesting words. I like to use simple words but in a complicated way.” She has a daughter, Ella (born in 1995) and lives in Manchester with her partner, the novelist Jackie Kay. Carol Ann Duffy was awarded an OBE in 1995, and a CBE in 2002. Havisham This poem is a monologue spoken by Miss Havisham, a character in Dickens' Great Expectations. Jilted by her scheming fiancé, she continues to wear her wedding dress and sit amid the remains of her wedding breakfast for
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