Safe as Houses

by U.A. Fanthorpe

Safe as

Genres: Poetry

69 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Ursula Askham Fanthorpe (published as U. A. Fanthorpe) was an English poet. She was educated at St Catherine's School, Bramley in Surrey and at St Anne's College, Oxford, where she received a first-class degree in English language and literature, and subsequently taught English at Cheltenham Ladies' College for sixteen years. She then abandoned teaching for jobs as a secretary, receptionist and hospital clerk in Bristol - in her poems, she later remembered some of the patients for whose records she had been responsible.

Her first volume of poetry, Side Effects, was published in 1978. She was "Writer-in-Residence" at St Martin's College, Lancaster (now University of Cumbria)(1983–85), as well as Northern Arts Fellow at Durham and Newcastle Universities.

In 1987 Fanthorpe went freelance, giving readings around the country and occasionally abroad. In 1994 she was nominated for the post of Professor of Poetry at Oxford. Her nine collections of poems were published by Peterloo Poets. Her Collected Poems came out in 2005. Many of her poems are for two voices. In her readings the other voice is that of 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, that was published in 2007 by Enitharmon.

Reviews

[Kay]

I have never been a lover of poetry because I can't understand it.
But all the same I do like it in small doses.

[Arvilla]

I really enjoyed these poems. Many of them were quite fun, like with Shel Silverstein, while others were touching. Would recommend.

[Alexis Sullivan]

Heard Harry Baker read Atlas and immediately bought the book because it resonated so much. So glad I did

[David Barclay]

A treat. I loved some of these poems straight away, and know that if I come back to them another time, I will find more to love, smile at and ponder.