A dazzling, dashing collection from the Poet Laureate.

`Carol Ann Duffy proves yet again to be an unparalleled poet’ Charlotte Mendelson, Observer `Witty, penetrating and lucid . . . Duffy’s ingenuity and virtuosity are fully on display’ Evening Standard Carol Ann Duffy’s powerful sixth collection draws on the historical, the archetypal, the biblical and the fantastical to create various visions – and revisions – of female identity. Simultaneously stripping women bare and revealing them in all their guises and disguises, these poems tell tall stories as though they were true confessions, and spin modern myths from real women seen in every aspect – as bodies and corpses, writers and workers, shoppers and slimmers, fairy-tale royals or girls-next-door. Together, they challenge and entertain as they explore the fullness of the female condition through the Poet Laureate’s unique voice. At once lyrical and real, tender and subversive, Feminine Gospels has charmed both readers and critics since it was first published in 2002.

In Feminine Gospels, Carol Ann Duffy draws on the historical, the archetypal, the biblical and the fantastical to create various visions – and revisions – of female identity. Simultaneously stripping women bare and revealing them in all their guises and disguises, these poems tell tall stories as though they were true confessions, and spin modern myths from real women seen in every aspect – as bodies and corpses, writers and workers, shoppers and slimmers, fairytale royals or girls-next-door.

‘Part of Duffy’s talent – besides her ear for ordinary eloquence, her gorgeous, powerful, throwaway lines, her subtlety – is her ventriloquism . . . From verbal nuances to mind-expanding imaginative leaps, her words seem freshly plucked from the minds of non-poets – that is, she makes it look easy’ Charlotte Mendelson, Observer