The 100
H OT 2After 300 years of waiting Britain finally has its first Carol Ann Duffy
female poet laureate. Kirstin Innes explains how Carol Ann Duffy has already made the post her own
I n one year as Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy has made more of an impression than Andrew Motion managed in a decade in the job. Her appointment in itself was pretty iconoclastic, and we all dutifully reeled off the reasons why it was a historic event: first woman Poet Laureate, first out LGBT Poet Laureate, first Scottish (half-Scottish, technically) Poet Laureate, and lo, across the land there was much rejoicing. However, it’s not just that she’s a convenient card-carrying member of quite so many marginalised groups that makes Duffy’s appointment so important. She’s also a pretty radical nonconformist with no intention of shutting her mouth in deference to the history of the role, and she’s just been handed a great big mouthpiece. Before accepting the job, she had made it perfectly clear that she had utterly no intention of sticking to traditional Laureately activities like penning a sonnet on Princess Michael of Kent’s new hat (or indeed, performing a toe-curlingly cringey ‘rap’ for Prince William’s birthday. Thanks, Mr Motion). ‘I will not write a poem for Edward and Sophie,’ she announced when previously turned down for the job in 1999. ‘No poet should have to do that.’
And she’s been true to her word. Instead, Duffy has interpreted her role as poet to the whole country. Her two official poems as
34 THE LIST 17 Dec 2009–7 Jan 2010
Laureate so far have been hard-hitting, political, and spoken out angrily about war, about the banks, about urgent situations that affect the people of this country. The gobsmackingly beautiful The Last Post, written in tribute to Henry Allingham and Harry Patch, the two surviving British soldiers to have taken part in WW1, both of whom died this year, is a fine example of the power of poetry to unite people. Right at the other end of the scale, her recently published rewrite of The Twelve Days of Christmas, which points angry fingers at the continued occupation of Afghanistan and those bankers responsible for the economic crisis, with each of the eight maids a milking turned into MPs making fraudulent expenses claims, has divided the public: most people love it but it’s certainly ruffling feathers in certain reactionary corners of the right-wing press (primarily, it seems, because ‘it’s not very Christmassy’ and ‘it doesn’t rhyme’). Good for Carol Ann, for refusing to churn out bland crowd-pleasers. Good for Carol Ann, for sticking to her guns and making her first public act once she’d been named Laureate to put on a small-scale kids show at the Scottish Storytelling Centre during the Fringe. Good for Carol Ann for continuing to make sure that poetry stays accessible, relevant, and part of people’s lives.
THE PEOPLE’S CHOICE This year we offered you the chance to cast your votes online for a people’s Hot 10, and you responded with plentiful nominations for Peter Capaldi, Biffy Clyro and, er, Dougie Donnelly. Niki Boyle runs down the list of democratically elected heroes
1Lisa Keddie Coordinated this year’s Five Pound Fringe, an array of shows for the bargain price of – you guessed it – a fiver each. An
innovative way to get even more bums on seats.
2 Peter Capaldi The first of two pasty,
belligerent Scotsmen on the list. The other one’s Gordon Brown. We really do like to hear English
toffs getting a bollocking by a Scot.
3 Kath Mainland The first ever Chief Executive of the Edinburgh Fringe presided over a great programme and a boom year for ticket sales after
last year’s flirtations with bankruptcy.
4 Calvin Harris Released a new album
Ready for the Weekend and a couple of dancefloor-igniting singles but is really here for the
whole Jedward/pineapple-head thing.
5 Biffy Clyro Released their fifth album Only Revolutions this year, and successfully created the pirate rock genre with single ‘The
Captain’. Now officially huge.
6 Dougie Donnelly Sportscene presenter who
was chosen (as part of a team) to review the BBC’s live sports coverage. A sympathy vote after
he was dropped from the golf coverage last year.
7Paolo Nutini Featured on The View’s
second album, then released his own, Sunny Side Up, which went in at number one and became
one of the biggest selling of the year.
8 Susan Boyle Received major press
coverage for her twin habits of changing hairstyles and throwing strops. Also sings. Now a major
sensation both sides of the Atlantic.
9 Frankie Boyle Shock jock who quit Mock the Week and his Daily Record column this year, but released his bestselling autobiography My Shit
Life So Far. Let’s hear it for pessimism.
10 Gordon Brown You voted for him! For this list we mean. Not the job of PM, which he’s managed to cling onto for another year. That’s an
achievement we guess.