U. A. Fanthorpe

Ursula Askham Fanthorpe, CBE, FRSL
Born	Ursula Askham Fanthorpe 22 July 1929(1929-07-22)
Died	28 April 2009(2009-04-28) (aged 79) Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom
Pen name	U.A. Fanthorpe
Occupation	Poet
Citizenship	British
Education	St Anne's College, Oxford
Period	1978 (1978)-2007 (2007)
Genres	Poetry
Notable work(s)	Side Effects Collected Poems From Me To You: Love Poems
Notable award(s)	Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry
Partner(s)	R.V. "Rosie" Bailey

Ursula Askham Fanthorpe, CBE, FRSL (22 July 1929 – 28 April 2009) was an English poet. She published as UA Fanthorpe.

Early life

She was educated 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 .

Her 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.

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 came out 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.

Death

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

Awards and honours

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.^{[citation needed]}

Bibliography

• Side Effects. Harry Chambers/Peterloo Poets. 1978. ISBN 9780905291147. 
• Standing to. Harry Chambers/Peterloo Poets. 1982. 
• Voices off. Harry Chambers/Peterloo Poets. 1984. ISBN 9780905291604. 
• Selected Poems. Penguin. 1986. ISBN 9780140075724. 
• A watching brief. Peterloo Poets. 1987. ISBN 9780905291871. 
• Neck-verse. Peterloo Poets. 1992. ISBN 9781871471335. 
• Safe as House. Peterloo Poets. 1995. ISBN 9781871471595. 
• Consequences. Peterloo Poets. 2000. ISBN 9781871471830. 
• U. A. Fanthorpe, Nicholas Wadle (2002). Christmas Poems. Illustrator Nick Wadley. Enitharmon. ISBN 9781900564137. 
• Dymock: The Time and the Place. Cyder Press. 2002. ISBN 9781861741219. 
• Queueing for the Sun. Peterloo Poets. 2003. ISBN 9781904324089. 
• Collected poems 1978-2003. Peterloo Poets. 2005. ISBN 9781904324201. 
• Eddie Wainwright (1995). Taking stock: a first study of the poetry of U.A. Fanthorpe. Peterloo Poets. ISBN 9781871471472. 
• Sandie, Elizabeth (2009). Acts of Resistance: The Poetry of U.A.Fanthorpe. Calstock Cornwall: Peterloo Poets. ISBN 978-1-904324-53-9. 

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