Beginner's Luck

When she died, in 2009, Anthony Thwaite described U.A. Fanthorpe as a 'smiling subversive with a voice like bird-song'. An encouraging example to all late developers, this particular bird's voice took its time: she didn't become a poet until she was 45. But these examples of her very earliest work show the latent mastery and the rapid development of the craft that would bring her wide critical acclaim and an affectionate general readership. Recognizing her role so late, she was a woman in a hurry; there wasn't time for self-consciousness or grandiose notions of 'vocation'. None of the poems in this gathering of U.A. Fanthorpe's early work was included in any previous edition of her poetry. U.A. Fanthorpe was the first woman to be nominated for the post of Oxford Professor of Poetry. She was made a CBE in 2001 and given the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in 2003, when her Collected Poems was published.