Christmas Poems

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Day Eight - The King of Christmas: a bored Baron hires a King of 'Misrule' for the 12 days before Christmas. Chaos and ridiculousness follows, but they all have a fun time. There are some incredible illustrations in this, and it is a funny poem! Day Ten - Frost Fair: I didn't like this one at all. A morbid last poem I think. I was looking forward to this as I am fascinated by the old fairs on the frozen Thames, but it was all tinged with darkness. Not super festive. She also writes picture books for children, and these include Underwater Farmyard (2002); Doris the Giant (2004); Moon Zoo (2005); The Tear Thief (2007); and The Princess's Blankets (2009). Duffy’s recent collections include her Collected Poems (2015), The Bees (2011), winner of the Costa Poetry Award and shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize; and Rapture (2005) , winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize. Duffy has also written verses for children. Her several collections of children’s poetry include The Gift (2010), New and Collected Poems for Children (2009), and The Hat (2007).

This beautifully illustrated collection brings together, for the first time, Carol Ann Duffy’s much-celebrated festive poems. Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, February, 1994, Betsy Hearne, review of I Wouldn't Thank You for a Valentine: Poems for Young Feminists, pp. 184-185; September, 1996, Betsy Hearne, review of Stopping for Death: Poems of Death and Loss, pp. 9-10. It all comes from the same place. There'll be what you might call a moment of inspiration - a way of seeing or feeling or remembering, an instance or a person that's made a large impression. Like the sand and the oyster, it's a creative irritant. In each poem, I'm trying to reveal a truth, so it can't have a fictional beginning.' The idea of updating The Night Before Christmas came from Anya Serota, a young editor at John Murray. Duffy was doubtful at first, not wanting to tinker with a classic, but her own childlike passion for all things Christmassy made the challenge irresistible. (She will turn 50 on 23 December, making this holiday season doubly festive.)Times Educational Supplement, January 22, 1999, review of The Pamphlet, p. 13; April 23, 1999, review of Five Finger-Piglets, p. 27; December 17, 1999, review of The World's Wife, p. 22; January 19, 2001, John Mole, review of The Oldest Girl in the World, p. F20. Dame Carol Ann Duffy, DBE, FRSL is a Scottish poet and playwright. She is Professor of Contemporary Poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University, and was appointed Britain’s Poet Laureate in May 2009. Profligacy has defined a career garlanded with almost every important poetry prize, together with a CBE to make up for the poet laureateship that she so narrowly lost out on. A two-year break following Ella's birth was the longest she'd ever taken before or since, and she made up for it with a flurry of children's books - more than she can ever remember, she now confesses, all of them written in a new-mother daze. This is Duffy at her most serious - the poems are rich, beautiful and heart-rending in their exploration of the deepest recesses of human emotion, both joy and pain. These works are also her most formal - following in the tradition of Shakespeare and John Donne, Duffy’s contemporary love poems in this collection draw on the traditional sonnet and ballad forms. Times Literary Supplement, March 3, 1995, p. 24; July 7, 1995, p. 32; December 3, 1999, Alan Brownjohn, review of The World's Wife, p. 24.

Here's Carol Ann Duffy's take on ' Twas the Night Before Christmas' to revel in on this most magical night of the year. When you have a child, your previous life seems like someone else's,' Duffy tells me over instant coffee. 'It's like living in a house and then suddenly finding a room that you didn't know was there, full of treasure and light. Every day is a gift with a child, no matter what problems you have.'Halloween, Bonfire Night, Christmas - I'm a great believer in preserving those festivals. They're like beacons in childhood; they make children feel safe and special.' Many, of course, have been following Duffy since she won the National Poetry Competition in 1983, and published her first collection, Standing Female Nude, in 1985. And those completely new to her poetry are in the enviable position of being able to experience the revelations of her – now considerable – body of work for the first time.