Search results for ""author carol ann duffy""

It is Christmas Eve, 1799, and Dorothy Wordsworth is awake in the dead of night. She stands outside in the winter cold, waiting patiently.When the new day breaks it will bring family and friends to Dorothy's door. For tomorrow is a double joy: tomorrow is her Christmas Birthday.Carol Ann Duffy's wonderful poem Dorothy Wordsworth's Christmas Birthday takes us to the frozen landscape of the Lake District, where a merry celebration is about to begin in the Wordsworths' cottage.Gorgeously illustrated by Tom Duxbury, this festive poem evokes the snowy Lake District as Dorothy celebrates her birthday with her brother William Wordsworth and fellow poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

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Carol Ann Duffy, appointed Poet Laureate in 2009, has chosen her favourite poems for children for this stunning collection of classic and modern verse, exquisitely illustrated by multi-award-winning illustrator Emily Gravett.Featuring such classic poems as 'The Owl and the Pussycat' by Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll's 'Jabberwocky' alongside Edwin Morgan's 'The Loch Ness Monster's Song' and 'Balloons' by Sylvia Plath, 101 Poems for Children Chosen by Carol Ann Duffy: A Laureate's Choice is a delight for children of all ages and a pleasure to read aloud.

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Once upon a time, there was a rich merchant who had three daughters. The girls were just as clever as they were bella and none more so than the youngest, whose name was Beauty. Disappear to faraway lands of wicked witches, evil monsters and brave heroines in former Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy's stunning collection of fairy tales. Including her beautiful and haunting retellings of the Grimm classics Hansel and Gretel, Snow White and the Pied Piper, as well as other tales from around the world, and new stories of her own, this book will make you think again about once upon a time . . . With ethereal illustrations by Tomislav Tomic, this uncommonly beautiful book is a very special introduction to - or reminder of - many classic fairy tales.

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Rats' Tales brings together a hugely entertaining, dark and magical cycle of folk tales from around the world. The volume contains two texts for each story: Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy's wonderful prose and Melly Still's lively dramatization. Rats' Tales celebrates the power of storytelling and will be published to coincide with the premiere at the Royal Exchange, Manchester, in November 2012. On Beasts and Beauties, on which Carol Ann Duffy and Melly Still also collaborated: 'The first night audience did not exit from the theatre, they hover-crafted out of it on a balloon of bliss.' Independent

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The Map and the Clock is a celebration of the most scintillating poems ever composed on our islands.Curated by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, and by Gillian Clarke, National Poet of Wales, this anthology gathers fourteen centuries of extraordinary verse - beginning with the first writings from the old languages of England and Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and culminating in some of our most recent poets, speaking in our present-day tongues. Many of our founding myths and legends are told here - King Arthur and Gawain, Beowulf and Mad Sweeney, the Mabinogion - as are the nursery-tales and songs we still sing today. Through these pages we witness the tragedy of European wars and world conflict; we court romance and friendship; we explore nationhood and belonging, identity and belief; and we are welcomed to a celebration of the cultural diversity of the poetries of our twenty-first century.The Map and the Clock is a stunning and essential treasury of the poems that have moulded our languages, examined our worlds, and shaped our islands through time.

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WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY CAROL ANN DUFFYAnna Akhmatova is one of the most accomplished and well loved poets Russia has ever produced. Her moving and passionate writing has won her an ardent readership all over the world. This selection, beautifully translated by poet and novelist D.M. Thomas, illustrates her broad scope and brilliant imaginative gifts. It covers both her earlier work and the poems she produced during her persecution by the Russian authorities.

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The Manchester Carols is an inspired collaboration between composer Sasha Johnson Manning and Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy. A collection of 12 carols, linked with a gentle, entertaining narration, which reshape and modernise the Christmas story. Its creators wanted to write something that is relevant to and reflects modern society, and which acknowledges the fact that even though someone might not subscribe to the religion behind the Nativity story, they can still appreciate it as an inspiring, magical tale. The carols are for everyone, believers or not. Duffy uses the Christmas story as a metaphor for human experience, giving us up-close and personal insights into the central characters of the nativity – Mary, Joseph, a newborn baby, and a ‘golden youth’ (aka the Angel Gabriel). As Duffy herself says: 'I think the story is wonderful. There’s a lot we can take from it on a human level even if we don’t take the divine element.' There are hints, too, of the darker, grittier side of the Nativity story – refugees, poverty, giving birth on the road; and, looking further forward, there are hints of Jesus’ fate on the cross. These carols were written in Manchester in 2007 and first performed by children from several Manchester schools at The Royal Northern College of Music (and again in 2008). All of us who worked on them – librettist, composer, artist, conductor, teachers, musicians and singers – live and work in that great city. And so these are, and will forever be, The Manchester Carols".

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WITH INTRODUCTIONS BY VALENTINE CUNNINGHAM AND CAROL ANN DUFFYIn this vivid portrait of one day in a woman's life, Clarissa Dalloway is preoccupied with the last-minute details of party she is to give that evening. As she readies her house she is flooded with memories and re-examines the choices she has made over the course of her life.

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The Golden Treasury is one of the most loved anthologies of English poetry ever published. The book was meticulously compiled by poet and scholar Francis Turner Palgrave, in collaboration with Alfred Tennyson, who was then poet laureate.It is arranged chronologically in four books which each celebrate a different era in the evolution of English poetry, from Elizabethan to the 19th century. All the greats are here, including Shakespeare and Milton, Marvell and Pope, Wordsworth and Keats. First published in 1861, it became the standard anthology for over 100 years.This Macmillan Collector’s Library edition includes a foreword by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, and is published to mark Macmillan’s 175th anniversary.

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It is a cold day in Ireland, the 26th of December; frost lies thick on the blackthorn. A man walks the just-waking village, banging on every door, summoning the boys. Today is St. Stephen's Day, when legend has it that the Saint was betrayed by a wren's call, and the boys are off to the forest where they hope to find the traitorous bird and capture it by nightfall. But what will they do if their prey escapes them?Inspired by the many myths of the wren and the Irish tradition of hunting it, Carol Ann Duffy's beautiful new Christmas poem takes us on a chase through a snowy, rural landscape and ends with a merry celebration. With gorgeous full-colour illustrations by Dermot Flynn throughout, The Wren-Boys will make a perfect stocking-filler this festive season.

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Down at the Front, on a cold winter's night in 1914, amidst the worst war the world had ever seen, an inexplicable silence spread from man to man. Belief was in the air. Then the soldiers ceased fire and the magic of Christmas took hold . . .Carol Ann Duffy's brilliant poem celebrates the miraculous truce between the trenches, when enemy shook hands with enemy, shared songs, swapped gifts, even played football, and peace found a place in No Man's Land.With gorgeous colour illustrations by David Roberts, this special, full size edition of The Christmas Truce is a Christmas gift to treasure.

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Written by the poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, this quirky poem will get children thinking about what it is they really want, from pop star friends and pet camels to homes in treetops or even teapots!. Beautifully written and extremely entertaining, the poem will undoubtedly get children’s imaginations running wild. Collins Big Cat Phonics Progress books are specifically designed for struggling readers, giving them age-appropriate texts that they can read, building their confidence and fostering positive attitudes towards reading. This title has a text level of Band 3 / Yellow, which provides varied sentence structure and natural language, and an interest level of Band 10 / White. Text type: A poem On pages 14 to 15, children will be able to recap the exotic and diverse choice of pals, pets and homes! Curriculum links: Citizenship

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