English Poet. After a career as a professor, she worked as a receptionist on a psychiatric unit, where she used her experiences to begin, at close to 50, a second career as a distinguished poet. Born Ursula Askham Fanthorpe, she was raised in Kent, the daughter of a Quaker judge. After education at St. Anne's College, Oxford, she taught English for 16 years at Cheltenham Ladies' College. Tired of academic life, she worked as a secretary, then took the job at a Bristol hospital that was to launch her into poetry. Fanthorpe was later to remember composing her first poem on April 18, 1974. Much of her verse came from listening to the psychiatric patients, "how it felt to be them, and to use their words". Her first collection, "Side Effects", was published in 1978; it was to be followed by eight more, with her "Collected Poems" released in 2007. Fanthorpe wrote of the mundane (a janitor, the weather) and the lofty, such as Paolo Uccello's painting "St. George and the Dragon", and several old battlefields. From 1983 to 1985 she was writer-in-residence at Lancaster University, and in 1994 she was the first woman in more than 300 years nominated as Professor of Poetry at Oxford. Her honours were several: Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, the Cholmondeley in 1995, appointment as Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 2001, and the Queen's Medal for Poetry in 2003. She died after an extended illness.
English Poet. After a career as a professor, she worked as a receptionist on a psychiatric unit, where she used her experiences to begin, at close to 50, a second career as a distinguished poet. Born Ursula Askham Fanthorpe, she was raised in Kent, the daughter of a Quaker judge. After education at St. Anne's College, Oxford, she taught English for 16 years at Cheltenham Ladies' College. Tired of academic life, she worked as a secretary, then took the job at a Bristol hospital that was to launch her into poetry. Fanthorpe was later to remember composing her first poem on April 18, 1974. Much of her verse came from listening to the psychiatric patients, "how it felt to be them, and to use their words". Her first collection, "Side Effects", was published in 1978; it was to be followed by eight more, with her "Collected Poems" released in 2007. Fanthorpe wrote of the mundane (a janitor, the weather) and the lofty, such as Paolo Uccello's painting "St. George and the Dragon", and several old battlefields. From 1983 to 1985 she was writer-in-residence at Lancaster University, and in 1994 she was the first woman in more than 300 years nominated as Professor of Poetry at Oxford. Her honours were several: Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, the Cholmondeley in 1995, appointment as Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 2001, and the Queen's Medal for Poetry in 2003. She died after an extended illness.
Read More
Bio by: Bob Hufford