No catches, no fine print just unconditional book loving for your children with their favourites saved to their own digital bookshelf.
New members get entered into our monthly draw to win £100 to spend in your local bookshop plus lots lots more...
Find out more
Poet, playwright and freelance writer Carol Ann Duffy was born on 23 December 1955 in Glasgow and read philosophy at Liverpool University. She is a former editor of the poetry magazine Ambit and is a regular reviewer and broadcaster. She moved from London to Manchester in 1996 and began to lecture in poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University. Her papers were acquired by the Robert W. Woodruff Library of Emory University in 1999, and in October 2000 she was awarded a grant of £75,000 over a five-year period by the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts.
Carol Ann Duffy is also an acclaimed playwright, and has had plays performed at the Liverpool Playhouse and the Almeida Theatre in London. Her plays include Take My Husband (1982), Cavern of Dreams (1984), Little Women, Big Boys (1986) and Loss (1986), a radio play. She received an Eric Gregory Award in 1984 and a Cholmondeley Award in 1992 from the Society of Authors, the Dylan Thomas Award from the Poetry Society in 1989 and a Lannan Literary Award from the Lannan Foundation (USA) in 1995. She was awarded an OBE in 1995, a CBE in 2001 and became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1999. She was appointed Poet Laureate of the United Kingdon in 2009. She has written for both children and adults, and her poetry has received many awards, including the Signal Prize for Children's Verse, the Whitbread, Forward and T. S. Eliot Prizes, and the Lannan and E. M. Forster Prize in America. Her collections include Ritual Lightning, Love Poems and The Bees, which won the Costa Poetry Award. She was made a DBE in the 2015 New Year Honours list. Carol Ann Duffy lives in Manchester, where she is Professor and Creative Director of the Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University.
A stunning collection of poems for children by the Poet Laureate. Carol Ann Duffy’s collection opens with ‘The Words of Poems’, which is a perfect introduction to the feast of delights found within this anthology. Duffy’s poems encompass everything from ‘The Good Child’s Guide to Rock’n’ Roll’, which is at least as much fun for adults as children, and the more obviously child directed, ‘The Sock’. This really is an anthology to treasure. ~ Julia Eccleshare
Queen Munch has cheeks as red as tomato ketchup, eyes the colour of chutney and a laugh as loud and deep as the moo of a cow on its way to be milked; Queen Nibble on the contrary, is as tall and slender and pale as a stick of celery. They’re about as different as you can be but become special friends in this joyful story after an afternoon of food-related games, and fun making jewellery out of rain. Children will love the playful nature of the story, and its larger/smaller-than-life central characters. Carol Ann Duffy’s text is full of wonderfully precise and evocative phrases and images, and Lydia Monks’s illustrations sparkle as brightly as the jewels that are like boiled sweets in Queen Munch’s crown! ~ Andrea Reece
Poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy, brings her gifts as a poet to this enchanting collection of all kinds of fairy stories. Familiar favourites such as The Emperor’s New Clothes and Rumpelstiltskin are vigorously and freshly told while also conveying a strong sense of the past. Carol Ann Dufy’s own stories have all the traditional qualities of fairy stories which makes them magical too. The edition is finely illustrated by Tomislav Tomic.
A beautiful poetry collection encompassing both classic and modern verse chosen by the Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy.
Shortlisted for the 2012 Kate Greenaway Medal. The Judges said: The beautiful illustrations are not just decorative, they interpret the text for us and strengthen the story's impact. The frames and shadows perfectly reflect the fairy tale feel and the different emblems and details emphasise the message. A perfect depiction of the circle of life. --------- The exceptional talents of Carol Ann Duffy and papercut artist Rob Ryan combine to present the story of a girl's journey through life and the desires that shape it. With a kind of magic that is timeless, The Gift speaks to everyone who wonders about the mysteries that lie at the heart of the human experience. A unique gift book for all ages by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy This lyrical text about life, love and art is accompanied by stunning papercut illustrations. The Gift portrays the cycle of life in a subtle, accessible way while exploring themes of birth, death, love and the importance of family and friends.
Age 7+. A stunning collection of poems for children by the Poet Laureate. Carol Ann Duffy’s collection opens with ‘The Words of Poems’, which is a perfect introduction to the feast of delights found within this anthology. Duffy’s poems encompass everything from ‘The Good Child’s Guide to Rock’n’ Roll’, which is at least as much fun for adults as children, and the more obviously child directed, ‘The Sock’. This really is an anthology to treasure. ~ Julia Eccleshare
A Picture Book for kids that love Animals. Carol Ann Duffy's lyrical, humorous verse illuminates an entrancing world that is both familiar and strange. This is a very special book.
A stunning collection of poems for children by the Poet Laureate. Carol Ann Duffy’s collection opens with ‘The Words of Poems’, which is a perfect introduction to the feast of delights found within this anthology. Duffy’s poems encompass everything from ‘The Good Child’s Guide to Rock’n’ Roll’, which is at least as much fun for adults as children, and the more obviously child directed, ‘The Sock’. This really is an anthology to treasure.
This is a warm, poignant and beautifully illustrated story set in a magical world where the tears of children arising from every emotion are of a different colour. An underlying thought-provoking message about emotions lies at its heart. The multi-coloured tears are collected by the tear thief for something truly wondrous. Read it to find out.
Shortlisted for the prestigious 2008 Greenway. A wonderfully lyrical story about the search for the happy endings that are needed to make the perfect story. Beautiful illustrations bring the story to life.
Shortlisted for the prestigious 2008 Greenway. A wonderfully lyrical story about the search for the happy endings that are needed to make the perfect story. Beautiful illustrations bring the story to life.
Age 9+. From one of the country’s most eminent and award winning poets comes this utterly delightful collection. Charming and witty these poems will take you off to magical worlds seeing extraordinary people, animals and beasts and all of them linked to the story of a hat blown through history from one head to another. Clever and a real treat.
This is a warm, poignant and beautifully illustrated story set in a magical world where the tears of children arising from every emotion are of a different colour.An underlying thought -provoking message about emotions lies at its heart. The multi-coloured tears are collected by the tear thief for something truly wondrous. Read it to find out.
Shortlisted for the prestigious 2008 Greenway. A wonderfully lyrical story about the search for the happy endings that are needed to make the perfect story. Beautiful illustrations bring the story to life.
Shortlisted for the prestigious 2008 Greenway. A wonderfully lyrical story about the search for the happy endings that are needed to make the perfect story. Beautiful illustrations bring the story to life.
Carol Ann Duffy’s version of this classic Christmas poem sets aside the sentimentality of Clement Moore’s original, The Night Before Christmas, offering something equally timeless and memorable but crackling with robust wit. There are lots of contemporary references: a satellite dish can observe our every move and know of famine and greed – but not see Father Christmas while cashpoints glow softly ‘like icons of light’. But, in the end, the magic of Christmas is the same. It’s not the presents or the tree; it’s the magic of truly believing.
Down at the front, on a cold winter's night in 1914, amidst the worst war the world had ever seen, an inexplicable silence spread from man to man. Belief was in the air. Then the soldiers ceased fire and the magic of Christmas took hold . . . Carol Ann Duffy's brilliant poem celebrates the miraculous truce between the trenches, when enemy shook hands with enemy, shared songs, swapped gifts, even played football, and peace found a place in No Man's Land. In a gorgeous small format with David Roberts' beautiful illustrations, The Christmas Truce is an irresistible festive gift. Also available in a larger, special edition hardback.
The Bees is Carol Ann Duffy's first collection of poems as Poet Laureate, and the much-anticipated successor to the T. S. Eliot Prize-winning Rapture. After the intimate focus of the earlier book, The Bees finds Duffy using her full poetic range: there are drinking songs, love poems, poems to the weather, poems of political anger; her celebrated 'Last Post' (written for the last surviving soldiers to fight in the First World War) showed that powerful public poetry still has a central place in our culture. There are elegies, too, for beloved friends, and - most movingly - the poet's own mother. As Duffy's voice rises in this collection, her music intensifies, and every poem patterns itself into song. Woven and weaving through the book is its presiding spirit: the bee. Sometimes the bee is Duffy's subject, sometimes it strays into the poem, or hovers at its edge - and the reader soon begins to anticipate its appearance. In the end, Duffy's point is clear: the bee symbolizes what we have left of grace in the world, and what is most precious and necessary for us to protect. The Bees is a work of great ecological and spiritual power, and Duffy's clearest affirmation yet of her belief in the poem as 'secular prayer', as the means by which we remind ourselves what is most worthy of our attention and concern, our passion and our praise.
Each night, in the hours between supper and bedtime, the Tear Thief carries her waterproof, silvery sack as she steals the tears of every child who cries. But what does she do with all those tears? This warm, poignant and beautifully illustrated story offers a thought-provoking message and a starting point for sharing children's emotional responses.
'Carol Ann Duffy is the most humane and accessible poet of our time' Rose Tremain, Guardian New Selected Poems contains poems chosen by Carol Ann Duffy from her first six acclaimed collections, from Standing Female Nude to Feminine Gospels, and a handful of other poems collected here for the first time. Endlessly varied and wonderfully inventive, this volume is the perfect introduction for new readers, the essential selection for students, and a glorious sum of parts for old acquaintances.
Shortlisted for the 2012 Kate Greenaway Medal. The Judges said: The beautiful illustrations are not just decorative, they interpret the text for us and strengthen the story's impact. The frames and shadows perfectly reflect the fairy tale feel and the different emblems and details emphasise the message. A perfect depiction of the circle of life. --------- The exceptional talents of Carol Ann Duffy and papercut artist Rob Ryan combine to present the story of a girl's journey through life and the desires that shape it. With a kind of magic that is timeless, The Gift speaks to everyone who wonders about the mysteries that lie at the heart of the human experience. A unique gift book for all ages by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy This lyrical text about life, love and art is accompanied by stunning papercut illustrations. The Gift portrays the cycle of life in a subtle, accessible way while exploring themes of birth, death, love and the importance of family and friends.
Whether writing of longing or seduction, of passion, adultery, or simple, everyday acts of love, Carol Ann Duffy perfectly captures the truth of each experience. Love Poems contains some of her most popular poems and, always imaginative, heartfelt and direct, displays all the eloquence and skill that have made her one of the foremost poets of her time.
That saying? Behind every famous man . . . ? From Mrs Midas to Queen Kong, from Elvis's twin sister to Pygmalion's bride, they're all here, in Carol Ann Duffy's inspired and inspirational collection, The World's Wife. Witty and thought-provoking, this is a tongue-in-cheek, no-holds-barred look at the real movers and shakers across history, myth and legend. If you have ever wondered, for example, how exactly Darwin came up with his theory of evolution, or what, precisely, Frau Freud thought about her husband - then this is the book for you, as the wives of the great, the good, the not so good, and the legendary are given a voice in Carol Ann Duffy's sparkling and inventive collection. `Carol Ann Duffy is a poet of skill, talent and great heart' Erica Wagner `Duffy takes a cheeky, subversive, no-nonsense swipe with a dish clout at the famous men of history and myth. They don't have a chance in hell of dodging her quick-witted wallop as she relays their stories from their spouse's points of view' The Times `Poignant, thoughtful, funny, rich and accessible' Ruth Padel, Guardian, Books of the Year
Carol Ann Duffy's seventh collection is a book-length love poem, and a moving act of personal testimony; but what sets these poems apart is Duffy's refusal to simplify the contradictions and transformations of love - infatuation, longing, passion, commitment, rancour, separation and grief. Instead, Rapture is a map of real love, in all its churning complexity, showing us that a song can be made of even the most painful episodes in our lives. These are poems that will find deep rhymes in the experience of most readers and will, ultimately, prove that poetry can and should speak for us all. `It isn't often that I pick up a book of poems and read it straight through like a novel, but that is exactly what happened with Rapture. Read this book if you are in love, out of love or waiting for it to come along' Daisy Goodwin, Mail on Sunday `Carol Ann Duffy is the most humane and accessible poet of our time, and Rapture is essential reading for the broken-hearted of all ages' Rose Tremain, Books of the Year, Guardian
If this is your author page then you can share your Twitter updates with your readers right here on LoveReading
Find out moreIf this is your author page then you can share your Facebook updates with your readers right here on LoveReading
Find out more
Check out the latest activities in our KidsZone.
CHECK OUT OUR INDIE AND SELF PUBLISHED BOOK REVIEW AND PROMOTION SERVICE