Carol Ann Duffy named first female Poet Laureate

CAROL ANN Duffy has been unveiled as the first female Poet Laureate in the role’s 341-year history today.

GROUNDBREAKING Carol Ann Duffy GROUNDBREAKING: Carol Ann Duffy

The 53-year-old replaces Andrew Motion in a historic line of poets which has included John Dryden, William Wordsworth and Alfred Lord Tennyson.

Today Duffy tackled the issue of her sexuality head-on and responded to rumours that she failed to win the Laureateship in 1999 because she is gay.

She said: “I think we’ve all grown up a lot over the past 10 years.

“Sexuality is something that is celebrated now we have civil partnerships and it’s fantastic that I’m an openly gay writer, and anyone here or watching the interviews who feels shy or uncomfortable about their sexuality should celebrate and be confident and be happy.

“It’s a lovely, ordinary, normal thing.”

Britain s new Poet Laureate at the John Rylands Library in Manchester today Britain's new Poet Laureate at the John Rylands Library in Manchester today

In another break with tradition Duffy - who once said that no poet should have to write for the royals - has rejected her £5,000-a-year salary.

She said: “It’s not a job. I have been able to relinquish myself from any financial commitment by giving the money to the Poetry Society to establish a prize.

"So I’ll just continue reading my poems and writing my poems as I always have.”

Duffy also insists her new role will not require her to commemorate royal occasions if she did not wish to - a task that her predecessor, Andrew Motion, struggled with.

She said: “The Ministry of Culture and the Palace made it very clear - particularly the Palace - that there is no expectation or requirement at all to write royal poems, and same with Government people.

"I don’t have to write anything about anything if I don’t want to, and, like all the poets, I would only ever write poems that are truthful, from an authentic source, whether that’s private or public.

“People know who I am, they know my life and they know that I’m truthful and I can only be myself, be true to myself, and be seen to live my life as myself and as a vocational poet.

Duffy said she aimed to be truthful and would write “what needs to be written”.

She said: “Poetry comes from the imagination, from memories, from experience, from events both personal and public so I will be following the truth of that and I will write whatever needs to be written.”

“Poetry matters to people in this country, poetry is a place we can go to for comfort, celebration, when we’re in love, when we’re bereaved and sometimes for events that happen to us as a nation.”

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