Full Description
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. The mysteries of the trade gradually reveal themselves as rooted in a wide and uncensored range of subject-matter, a life-time's love of words, and an intuitive grasp of the mechanics of form and voice. Recognising her role so late, she was a woman in a hurry; there wasn't time for self-consciousness or grandiose notions of 'vocation'. 'A poet,' she said, 'is a smuggler. He imports things clandestinely which are not supposed to have got through the customs.' Poetry 'happened to me', she would say. Her job? To listen, to pass it on.
Contents
7 Introduction by R.V. Bailey
19 A confused noise within
21 A funny set up
22 A high wind
23 A marriage
24 Administrator
25 All Souls
26 An honest enquiry
27 Apology for clarity
28 At Cadbury
30 Boarding kennels
31 Complaints Department
32 Consultant's holiday
33 Crab
34 Cured depressive
35 Defeated
36 Demonstration of leuco-coagulation treatment to a conference of the Royal Society of Psychiatrists
38 Diagnosis
39 Durdham Down
40 Eavesdropper
41 Fairy-tale
42 For Sappho
43 From a bestiary
45 Gay Christians
46 George Herbert's church at Bemerton
47 Gingerbread maker
48 Headmistress
49 House-hunting
50 In-patients
51 Infidelity
53 Introducing...
55 Job description: poet
56 Linguist
57 Management committee
58 Meeting at night
59 Miss Morris
60 Misunderstood
61 November in Bristol
62 O and M study: the boatman
65 Obsessive's song
66 On a dead social worker
67 On behalf of Chaos
68 Paper friends
69 Passer-by
70 Phoenix
71 Playtime
72 Poem for temps
73 Problem picture
74 Rites de passage
75 Rodmell churchyard
76 Sexual delinquent
77 Sir
78 Song of the flea
79 Swifts
80 T-group
81 The bowl of roses
82 The brides of Christ
84 The golden girls
85 The head housemaid tells the receptionist a joke
87 The receptionist
88 This quiet little Welshwoman
89 To the Holy Ghost
90 Typist
91 Wise children
93 Woman's world
94 Writer's garden
