U. A. Fanthorpe was Head of English at Cheltenham Ladies’ College, and then ‘became a middle-aged drop-out in order to write’, publishing her first collection, Side Effects, in 1978. After working as a hospital clerk in Bristol, she was the Arts Council Literary Fellow at Lancaster, and in 1994 she was the first woman to be nominated for the post of Professor of Poetry at Oxford. Her seven volumes of poetry are all published by Peterloo Poets, and her Selected Poems was published by Penguin in 1986. She has also written children’s poetry for The Crystal Zoo. U. A. Fanthorpe was awarded the C.B.E. in 2001. Her Collected Poems (Peterloo) will appear in 2003.

About Christmas Poems:

"U. A. Fanthorpe is a national treasure. A new book from her is always a unique pleasure to be savoured for its truth, disconcerting obliqueness and even more disconcerting directness."
—Liz Lochhead, Poetry Book Society Bulletin