Not My Best Side

The English poet U. A. Fanthorpe (1929-2009) liked to call herself "a middle-aged drop-out," having abandoned a successful teaching career to focus on her poetry, even concealing her Oxford degree so she could find paid work--at Hoover, then as a hospital receptionist. This gave her a chance to study people, which is what her wonderful poems do best. Fanthorpe's verse is instinctively English, often very moving, frequently funny, invariably rooted in her faith. Fanthorpe and her partner, Rosie B