We thoroughly enjoyed reading this fascinating article in the Guardian about Carol Ann Duffy's latest and last collection as UK Poet Laureate. Here is a short extract:
“I think the past couple of years, with the evil twins of Trump and Brexit... I don’t remember ever having felt such a kind of lowering abstract stress coming from the political aura. It’s just so demoralising. You feel powerless... There was no way of not writing about that, because it is just in the air.”
Sincerity is Duffy’s final collection of poems as Poet Laureate, and the much-anticipated successor to the Costa Award-winning The Bees. Time and its passage are at the heart of this reflective work, which gazes out from the autumn of life. There are moving elegies here for what has departed; whether that be children who have flown the nest, a way of life, literary luminaries, past loves, lost parents or our own youth. As Duffy dramatises scenes from childhood, adolescence and adulthood, she finds moments of grace or consolation in memory, love and language amid the complexities of life.
Members can pre-order their copies of Sincerity here with 25% discount.