Ursula Askham Fanthorpe (U.A.Fanthorpe)

Ursula Askham Fanthorpe (U.A.Fanthorpe)

"The Master of the Cast Shadow' begins in a tone of admiration for the painter's skill, but moves into a tone of unease toward the way that skill hides the history behind the images."

Ursula Askham Fanthorpe (U.A.Fanthorpe)

(22 July 1929 – 28 April 2009) was an English poet. She published under the form U. A. Fanthorpe.

Born	Ursula Askham Fanthorpe 22 July 1929
Died	28 April 2009 (aged 79) Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom
Pen name	U. A. Fanthorpe
Occupation	Poet
Citizenship	British
Education	St Anne's College, Oxford
Period	1978–2007
Genre	Poetry
Notable works	Side Effects Collected Poems From Me To You: Love Poems
Notable awards	Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry
Partner	R. V. "Rosie" Bailey

U. A. Fanthorpe spent her earliest years in Kent. She attended St Anne's College Oxford afterwards becoming a teacher and ultimately Head of English at Cheltenham Ladies' College. However, she only began writing when she turned her back on her teaching career to become a receptionist at a psychiatric hospital where her observation of the "strange specialness" of the patients provided the inspiration for her first book, Side Effects. Since that relatively late start, Fanthorpe was prolific, producing 9 full-length collections, including the Forward Prize-nominated Safe as Houses and the Poetry Book Society Recommendation Consequences. She was awarded a CBE in 2001 and the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in 2003.

Talking of her war-time childhood Fanthorpe said, "I think it's important not to run away" and on the surface her poetry seems to encapsulate those traditional, stoic English values we associate with the period. Certainly England and Englishness are central themes in her work but such a reading misses the wit and sly debunking of national myth which mark Fanthorpe's sensibility. A typical expression of this can be found in 'Earthed' and its wry celebration of her homeland with its "gardens,/Loved more than children". This has Larkinesque overtones, but Fanthorpe's work is also deeply humane as exemplified in her exploration of the lifelong aftermath of war in 'The Constant Tin Soldier'. These themes come together in her sequence 'Consequences' which is rooted in her native soil and steeped in the blood of its battlefields. This is an England that has more in common with Rwanda or Bosnia than the cosy Albion of the heritage industry.

Even at her darkest Fanthorpe's diction remains admirably understated and proverbial. She regarded a poem "as a conversation between the poet and the reader" and this is evident in her characterful and engaging delivery. Many of the poems are for two or more voices and she is joined in these instances by Dr Rosie Bailey. Clear-eyed but refusing pessimism, the hard-won balance of Fanthorpe's poems is well expressed by the closing lines of 'Consequences': "the best things/ye worst times/callamitous/hope."

U. A. Fanthorpe's reading was the first recording made for The Poetry Archive. It was recorded on 16 May 2000 with Dr Rosie Bailey at their home in Gloucestershire, England and was produced by Richard Carrington.

U A Fanthorpe's Favourite Poetry Sayings:

"I should define a good poem as one that makes complete sense; and says all it has to say memorably and economically. " - Robert Graves

"Nine-tenths of English poetic literature is the result of . . . a poet trying to keep his hand in. " - Robert Graves

"To be a poet is a condition rather than a profession." - Robert Graves

"The lyf so short, the craft so long to learne,/Th'assay so hard, so sharp the conquering." - Geoffrey Chaucer

"Vain was the chief's, the sage's pride!/ They had no poet, and they died." - Alexander Pope

Bibliography

• Side Effects. Harry Chambers/Peterloo Poets. 1978. ISBN 978-0-905291-14-7.
• Standing to. Harry Chambers/Peterloo Poets. 1982.
• Voices off. Harry Chambers/Peterloo Poets. 1984. ISBN 978-0-905291-60-4.
• Selected Poems. Penguin. 1986. ISBN 978-0-14-007572-4.
• A watching brief. Peterloo Poets. 1987. ISBN 978-0-905291-87-1.
• Neck-verse. Peterloo Poets. 1992. ISBN 978-1-871471-33-5.
• Safe as House. Peterloo Poets. 1995. ISBN 978-1-871471-59-5.
• Consequences. Peterloo Poets. 2000. ISBN 978-1-871471-83-0.
• U. A. Fanthorpe (2002). Christmas Poems. Illustrator Nick Wadley. Enitharmon Press. ISBN 978-1-900564-13-7.
• Dymock: The Time and the Place. Cyder Press. 2002. ISBN 978-1-86174-121-9.
• Queueing for the Sun. Peterloo Poets. 2003. ISBN 978-1-904324-08-9.
• Collected poems 1978–2003. Peterloo Poets. 2005. ISBN 978-1-904324-20-1.
• New and Collected Poems 1978–2009. Enitharmon Press. 2010. ISBN 978-1-907587-00-9.
• Eddie Wainwright (1995). Taking stock: a first study of the poetry of U.A. Fanthorpe. Peterloo Poets. ISBN 978-1-871471-47-2.
• Sandie, Elizabeth (2009). Acts of Resistance: The Poetry of U.A.Fanthorpe. Calstock Cornwall: Peterloo Poets. ISBN 978-1-904324-53-9.

Prizes

1980 Arvon International Poetry Competition (2nd Prize), 'Rising Damp'

1986 Travelling Fellowship from The Society of Authors

1987 & 1997 Hawthornden Fellowships

1988 Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature

1992 Poetry Book Society Recommendation, Neck Verse

1994 Arts Council Writers' Award

1994 First woman to be nominated for Professor of Poetry at Oxford 

1995 Poetry Book Soceity Recommendation, Safe as Houses

1995 Cholmondeley Award

1995 Forward Poetry Prize (Best Collection - shortlist), Safe as Houses

2000 Poetry Book Society Recommendation, Consequences

2003 The Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry 

2005 Poetry Book Society Special Commendation, Collected Poems 1978-2003

The Master of the Cast Shadow - an extract from the sequence Consequences

Not My Best Side U.A. Fanthorpe

UA Fanthorpe