U. A. Fanthorpe

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Ursula Askham Fanthorpe, CBE, FRSL (22 July 1929 - 28 April 2009) was an English poet. She published under the form U. A. Fanthorpe.

Video U. A. Fanthorpe

Life and work

Born in south-east London, the daughter of a barrister, Fanthorpe was educated at St Catherine's School, Bramley in Surrey and at St Anne's College, Oxford, where she received a first-class degree in English language and literature, and subsequently taught English at Cheltenham Ladies' College for sixteen years. She then abandoned teaching for jobs as a secretary, receptionist and hospital clerk in Bristol - in her poems, she later remembered some of the patients for whose records she had been responsible .

Fanthorpe's first volume of poetry, Side Effects, was published in 1978. She was "Writer-in-Residence" at St Martin's College, Lancaster (now University of Cumbria) (1983-85), as well as Northern Arts Fellow at Durham and Newcastle Universities.

Her most famous poem is probably Atlas, with its celebrated opening line, "There is a kind of love called maintenance."

In 1987 Fanthorpe went freelance, giving readings around the country and occasionally abroad. In 1994 she was nominated for the post of Professor of Poetry at Oxford. Her nine collections of poems were published by Peterloo Poets. Her Collected Poems was published in 2005. Many of her poems are for two voices. In her readings the other voice is that of Bristol academic and teacher R. V. "Rosie" Bailey, Fanthorpe's life partner of 44 years. The couple co-wrote a collection of poems, From Me To You: love poems, that was published in 2007 by Enitharmon.

Fanthorpe died, aged 79, on 28 April 2009, in a hospice near her home in Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire.

Fanthorpe was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and was made CBE in 2001 for services to poetry. In 2003 she received the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry. In 2006 she was awarded an Honorary Degree (Doctor of Letters) from the University of Bath.

Maps U. A. Fanthorpe

Bibliography

• Side Effects. Harry Chambers/Peterloo Poets. 1978. ISBN 978-0-905291-14-7. 
• Standing to. Harry Chambers/Peterloo Poets. 1982. 
• Voices off. Harry Chambers/Peterloo Poets. 1984. ISBN 978-0-905291-60-4. 
• Selected Poems. Penguin. 1986. ISBN 978-0-14-007572-4. 
• A watching brief. Peterloo Poets. 1987. ISBN 978-0-905291-87-1. 
• Neck-verse. Peterloo Poets. 1992. ISBN 978-1-871471-33-5. 
• Safe as House. Peterloo Poets. 1995. ISBN 978-1-871471-59-5. 
• Consequences. Peterloo Poets. 2000. ISBN 978-1-871471-83-0. 
• U. A. Fanthorpe (2002). Christmas Poems. Illustrator Nick Wadley. Enitharmon Press. ISBN 978-1-900564-13-7. CS1 maint: Uses authors parameter (link)
• Dymock: The Time and the Place. Cyder Press. 2002. ISBN 978-1-86174-121-9. 
• Queueing for the Sun. Peterloo Poets. 2003. ISBN 978-1-904324-08-9. 
• Collected poems 1978-2003. Peterloo Poets. 2005. ISBN 978-1-904324-20-1. 
• New and Collected Poems 1978-2009. Enitharmon Press. 2010. ISBN 978-1-907587-00-9. 
• U.A. Fanthorpe Selected Poems. Enitharmon Press. 2013. ISBN 978-1-907587-26-9. 
• Berowne's Book. Enitharmon Press. 2015. ISBN 978-1-910392-13-3. 
• Eddie Wainwright (1995). Taking stock: a first study of the poetry of U.A. Fanthorpe. Peterloo Poets. ISBN 978-1-871471-47-2. 
• Sandie, Elizabeth (2009). Acts of Resistance: The Poetry of U.A.Fanthorpe. Calstock Cornwall: Peterloo Poets. ISBN 978-1-904324-53-9. 

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References

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External links

• U.A. Fanthorpe Collection University of Gloucestershire Archives and Special Collections
• Fanthorpe reading her own poetry at The Poetry Archive
• The British Arts Council's Contemporary Writers page
• Article with biographical information from the Independent Online
• UA Fanthorpe Daily Telegraph obituary
• Portraits at the national Portrait Gallery
• "Reader's Corner 3: U. A. Fanthorpe & R. V. Bailey" Acumen No 50 - September 2004

Source of the article : Wikipedia