Ursula Askham Fanthorpe,

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

FRSL The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, th ...

(22 July 1929 – 28 April 2009) was an English poet, who published as U. A. Fanthorpe. Her poetry comments mainly on social issues.

Life and work

Born in

south-east London Greater London is divided into five sub-regions for the purposes of the London Plan. The boundaries of these areas were amended in 2008 and 2011 and their role in the implementation of the London Plan has varied with each iteration. Purpose Sub- ...

, Fanthorpe was the daughter of a judge, or as she put it "middle-class but honest parents".Virginia Blain, Patricia Clements and Isobel Grundy: ''The Feminist Companion to Literature in English. Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present'' (London: Batsford, 1990), p. 356. She was educated at

St Catherine's School, Bramley St Catherine's School is an independent girls' school in the village of Bramley, near Guildford, Surrey, England. The school is divided into a senior school, for ages 11–18, and a preparatory school for girls aged 4–11. History St Cat ...

, in Surrey, and at

St Anne's College, Oxford St Anne's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It was founded in 1879 and gained full college status in 1959. Originally a women's college, it has admitted men since 1979. It has some 450 undergraduate and 200 ...

, where she "came to life", receiving a first-class

degree Degree may refer to: As a unit of measurement * Degree (angle), a unit of angle measurement ** Degree of geographical latitude ** Degree of geographical longitude * Degree symbol (°), a notation used in science, engineering, and mathematics ...

in English language and literature. She taught English at

Cheltenham Ladies' College Cheltenham Ladies' College is an independent boarding and day school for girls aged 11 to 18 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. Consistently ranked as one of the top all-girls' schools nationally, the school was established in 1853 to pr ...

for 16 years, but then left teaching for jobs as a secretary, receptionist and hospital clerk in

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

– in her poems, she later remembered some of the patients for whose records she had been responsible. Fanthorpe's first volume of poetry, ''Side Effects'' (1978), has been said to "unsentimentally recover the invisible lives and voices of psychiatric patients." She was "Writer-in-Residence" at St Martin's College, Lancaster (now the University of Cumbria) in 1983–1985, and later Northern Arts Fellow at Durham Newcastle universities. Her 1984 volume ''Voices Off'' explores student life, critical vocabulary, and the finding that "naming is power". Her most famous poem is probably ''Atlas'', which opens, "There is a kind of love called maintenance." In 1987 Fanthorpe went freelance, giving readings around the country and occasionally abroad. In 1994 she was nominated for the post of

Oxford Professor of Poetry The Professor of Poetry is an academic appointment at the University of Oxford. The chair was created in 1708 by an endowment from the estate of Henry Birkhead. The professorship carries an obligation to lecture, but is in effect a part-time po ...

. Her nine collections of poems were published by Peterloo Poets. Her ''Collected Poems'' was published in 2005. Many of her poems bring in two voices. In her readings the other voice is that of the Bristol academic and teacher R. V. "Rosie" Bailey, Fanthorpe's life partner of 44 years. The couple co-wrote a collection of poems, ''From Me To You: love poems'', illustrated by Nick Wadley and published in 2007 by Enitharmon. Both became

Quakers Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abil ...

in the 1980s. Fanthorpe died of cancer aged 79 on 28 April 2009, in a hospice near her home in Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire.

Awards

Fanthorpe was a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, th ...

, and was made

in 2001 for services to poetry. In 2003 she received the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry. Among many other awards and honours she was awarded an Honorary Degree (Doctor of Letters) from the University of Bath.University of Bath "Degree ceremonies finish at Bath Abbey today", 2006.
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Bibliography

* *''Four Dogs – a poem'', Treovis Press, Liskeard, Cornwall. 1980 * * * * * * * * * * * *''From Me To You, Love Poems''. U. A. Fanthorpe and R. V. Bailey, London: Enitharmon Press 2007 *''In a Highland Gift Shop''. U. A. Fanthorpe, Edinburgh: Mariscat Press 2013. * * * * * *U. A. Fanthorpe: ''Beginner's Luck'', ed. R V Bailey. Bloodaxe, 2019.

References

External links

U. A. Fanthorpe Collection
University of Gloucestershire Archives and Special Collections
Fanthorpe reading
her own poetry at The Poetry Archive
The British Arts Council's Contemporary Writers pageArticle with biographical information
from the ''Independent'' Online

Daily Telegraph obituary
UA Fanthorpe
Obituary in The Guardian
Portraits at the national Portrait Gallery"Reader's Corner 3: U. A. Fanthorpe & R. V. Bailey" ''Acumen'' No 50 – September 2004
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fanthorpe, U. A. Academics of Durham University Academics of Newcastle University Alumni of St Anne's College, Oxford Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Deaths from cancer in England English women poets 20th-century English poets 20th-century British poets Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature English lesbian writers People educated at St Catherine's School, Bramley People from Wotton-under-Edge People from Kent People from Surrey 1929 births 2009 deaths Place of birth missing English LGBT poets 20th-century English women writers Cheltenham Ladies' College faculty British Quakers English Quakers Quaker writers