Divided into three sections (1900-1945; 1945-1980; 1980-2000), this survey documents the publications, activities and achievements of an undervalued literary community. An overview of each period explores the particular challenges and opportunities for women. The chapters that follow discuss the major poets, as individuals or in groups connected by their context and practice. These essays reflect and stimulate continuing debates about the nature of women's poetry and comprise an invaluable resource for scholars, students and interested readers.

This is the only monograph to consider the entire thirty-year career, publications, and influence of Britain's first female poet laureate. It outlines her impact on trends in contemporary poetry and establishes what we mean by 'Duffyesque' concerns and techniques. Discussions of her writing and activities prove how she has championed the relevance of poetry to all areas of contemporary culture and to the life of every human being. Individual chapters discuss the lyrics of 'love, loss, and longing'; the socially motivated poems about the 1980s; the female-centred volumes and poems; the...