Writer and poet Carol Ann Duffy has been named Britain's poet laureate - the first woman to hold a post that has been filled by William Wordsworth, Alfred, Lord Tennyson and Ted Hughes. A popular writer whose work is widely taught in British schools, Duffy is also the first openly gay laureate. Duffy said she had thought 'long and hard' before accepting the job, which now has a 10-year term.Duffy said she hesitated before accepting the job, which brings a high public profile and an expectation to rhapsodize about royal weddings, funerals and major state occasions.
In the end, she left the decision to her 13-year-old daughter, Ella: "She said, 'Yes mummy, there's never been a woman.'"
Duffy, 53, said that as laureate she would write "whatever needs to be written."
She said poetry "is a place we can go to for comfort, celebration, when we're in love, when we're bereaved and sometimes for events that happen to us as a nation."
In the end, she left the decision to her 13-year-old daughter, Ella: "She said, 'Yes mummy, there's never been a woman.'"
Duffy, 53, said that as laureate she would write "whatever needs to be written."
She said poetry "is a place we can go to for comfort, celebration, when we're in love, when we're bereaved and sometimes for events that happen to us as a nation."
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