Rochdale Literature and Ideas Festival: Carol Ann Duffy

Carol Ann Duffy at the Rochdale Literature and Ideas Festival

Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy graced the main stage at Rochdale’s Literature and Ideas Festival this evening (Saturday 26 October) for a performance of her work.

Carol Ann is Britain’s first female Poet Laureate and her work has received national and international acclaim. As part of her performance, musician John Sampson accompanied her.

When speaking of the festival, Carole Ann said: “It is lovely to be here to help celebrate the end of the day and to help celebrate with the young writers involved this evening.”

Carol Ann’s performance included readings of some love poems from the book ‘Rapture.’ The poems were based on a love affair from start to finish and were read in order of the story in text form.

The poems read were in sonnet form and Carol Ann said: “I like to think of the sonnet as the little black dress for poetry. It is the perfect form for a love poem.”

Carole Ann then read a collection of poems from the last book she had published, ‘The Bees.’

Carol Ann told of how she had a poem banned four years ago because an exam invigilator believed that the poem encouraged twenty first century youths to commit knife crime. When asked by the Guardian newspaper for a comment on her thoughts behind the poem being banned, Carol Ann responded with a poem entitled ‘Mrs Sheffield’s GCSE’ and performed this poem for the audience.

‘Liverpool’ was a poem written after the Hillsborough report was released last year. Carol Ann said: “I went to university in Liverpool and lived there for over a decade. I have a lot of love for the city.”

To end her performance, Carol Ann performed a poem entitled ‘Premonitions.’
The poem explored the relationship she had with her mother and told of the two getting to know each other in reverse. The poem started with Carol Ann meeting her mum as she died and told the tale of them going back in time.

After her performance Carol Ann signed books for people in attendance.

Eileen O’Hara, who attended the performance and book signing, said: “It was brilliant. I have never seen her before but I was so impressed that I am buying some of her books.”

Eileen attended the evening event with her son Joe. He said: “It was amazing. She performs the poems as well as she writes them. I studied her work at A Level so it is nice to see the poems come to life. She had a great turn of phrase and great comedic timing.”

Sue Hutchinson also attended the event and said: “Where do I begin. It was brilliant. I have been a fan of her for quite some time and I never thought I would get this opportunity. Hasn’t Rochdale done well?”

The Rochdale Literature and Ideas festival continues tomorrow for its final day.