Talk:Carol Ann Duffy

Moved

Moved to new page to correct spelling of "Carol". Mswake 12:10 Jan 8, 2003 (UTC)

homophobia allegation

"Carol Ann Duffy was almost appointed the British Poet Laureate in 1999 (after the death of previous Laureate Ted Hughes), but lost out on the position to Andrew Motion. A Downing Street official said that Prime Minister Tony Blair was 'worried about having a homosexual poet laureate because of how it might play in middle England."

Is this definitely true? There were rumours at the time but it seems a bit unlikely that "a Downing Street official" would have said anything quite so frank, admitting to disgraceful if not illegal bias by a highly image-conscious PM. Statement would appear to need verifying, attributing and/or toning down. Flapdragon 02:51, 4 Dec 2004 (UTC)

"She regards Andrew Motion as a friend and says that the idea of a contest for the position between her and him for the post was entirely invented by the newspapers."

Added the above summary of her comments heard on the BBC Radio 4 programme Book Club on Sun 5 Dec 2004. Harry 01:04, 6 Dec 2004 (UTC)

NPOV

"She is one of the few poets in the UK to combine academic integrity with accessibility and popularity."

This may be perfectly true but doesn't seem like NPOV somehow -- who says so? Added a rather pusillanimous little "perhaps" to tone it down. Harry 01:07, 6 Dec 2004 (UTC)

I cut it completely, looked ugly to me, and is pretty much mirrored in the other sourced statements anyway. On the subject of sourcing, I'm uneasy about "According to the Sunday Times…" since we haven't actually got a link to the relevant Sunday Times article itself, and I'm not at all sure of the validity of knittingcircle as a source, especailly a tertiary one. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Benmachine (talk • contribs) 16:30, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

OBE and CBE

I have read that she has been awarded an OBE and a CBE. Can anyone verify this?

OBE in 1995, CBE in 2001, Hon DLitt (Warwick), ditto (Keele), Honorary something-or-other (Dundee), FRSLit. Prof (Creative Writing School) at Manchester. All that and The World's Wife still makes me laugh out loud. Angus McLellan 00:57, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

Maureen Duffy disambig

Do we really need this? Guinnog 19:49, 26 March 2006 (UTC)

I don't think it's necessary.From my layman's point of view, she's not nearly so famous. Maybe it's because they share a surname, and are both homosexual. I guess if a few more people post saying they don't think it's necessary and noone posts otherwise, we could remove it. Kymara 20:40, 26 March 2006 (UTC)

I agree it shd probably be deleted. Once we start disambiguating people whose names aren't even the same where will we stop? Flapdragon 21:23, 26 March 2006 (UTC)

If all they share is the same last name, I agree: delete. Kdammers 02:38, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

Done Guinnog 03:26, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

Duffy-Civil partnership?

Is it true Murice Oldamon is her lesbian partner, and that they had a civil partnership in 2004?

AQA Anthology

Carol Ann Duffy has had some poems put in to the AQA Anthology (ISBN 019 831881 2). It may be worth including this in the article, and others. I would do it now but I'm supposed to be revising for an English Literature Exam tomorrow! Stwalkerster talk review 18:41, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Also i'm sure Education for Leisure has not been removed from the AQA Anthology, its just not a named poem anymore, which means they won't ask you about it in the exam, but you can still refer to it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.12.64.21 (talk) 18:22, 30 April 2009 (UTC)

wot no pics?

Surely we can find some interesting pics to liven up the site a bit. Some covers of books? Receiving OBE etc? Spanglej (talk) 23:34, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

Controversies

'Controversy' is defined as "disagreement, typically when prolonged, public, and heated". The information placed under the section 'Controversies' was not controversial, simply biographical. I therefore moved the information to the Background section of the article.

Controversy sections are for disagreement about 'facts', not about information over which there is no disagreement but about which an editor might not like. For example, it is not controversial that Carol Ann Duffy was passed over for Poet Laureate in 1999 because of her sexuality - it is just a matter of fact. Whether or not an editor (or members of the public at large) likes that decision is of no consequence to the article.

On the other hand, there are instances where the facts of an event are not clear, and experts are documented to have heated public disagreements about the facts. This is the proper use of a Controversy section.