Carol Ann Duffy writes poem paying tribute to England’s female footballers
We See You names pioneers of women’s game as well as Lionesses in ‘team talk’ sonnet
July 2023
Top 10s
Top 10: good sex in fiction
Never mind heaving bosoms and whimpering grunts, some writers – from Sally Rooney to DH Lawrence – depict genuine, sometimes graphic, intimacy in all its forms
May 2023
The World’s Wife review – Carol Ann Duffy’s poems come to vivid and vital musical life
Jorinde Keesmaat’s staging of Tom W Green’s reworked music-theatre piece is performed with fabulously assured authority by Lucia Lucas and the Ragazze Quartet
March 2023
Don’t write what you know, write what you feel: bestselling authors offer tips on World Book Day
Malorie Blackman advises budding authors to pick up on news stories, but Julia Donaldson warns of pitfalls – and Alan Moore says you should read terrible books as well as good ones
September 2022
Former poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy shares poem to mark Queen’s passing
Five men and one woman who took on impossible job – of poet laureate
March 2022
And did those feet: 10 walks inspired by famous poets
Matching rich verse with great scenery, these strolls follow in the footsteps of some of our greatest wordsmiths, from William Blake to Carol Ann Duffy
March 2021
Empty Nest: Poems for Families, edited by Carol Ann Duffy review – the agony of absence
Fathers, mothers and grownup children reflect on leaving home and the ‘dance between closeness and distance’ in an outstanding anthology
February 2021
Club culture
‘You can smell the sweat and hair gel’: the best nightclub scenes from culture
Writers and artists including Róisín Murphy, Tiffany Calver and Sigala on the art that transports them to the dancefloor during lockdown
May 2020
Look, don't touch: what great literature can teach us about love with no contact
Poems to get us through
Poems to get us through: 'I thought about drilling a hole in my head'
April 2020
Poems to get us through
Poems to get us through: love, loss and an appetite pricked by longing
Carol Ann Duffy leads British poets creating 'living record' of coronavirus
Poems to get us through
Poems to get us through: a walk prompts memories of parked cars and tears
Poems to get us through
Carol Ann Duffy's poems to get us through: the pangs of closing a library
December 2019
'Sometimes the world goes feral' – 11 odes to Europe
Frost Fair by Carol Ann Duffy review – icy perfection from a curator of cold
September 2019
Best culture of the 21st century
The 100 best books of the 21st century
Dazzling debut novels, searing polemics, the history of humanity and trailblazing memoirs ... Read our pick of the best books since 2000
June 2019
Carol Rumens's poem of the week
Poem of the week: Vocation by Carol Ann Duffy
Subtly shifting imagery describes an elusive role, which may or may not be the poet’s own
May 2019
Who needs poetry? We all do – and we need it now
Kenan Malik
In an age in which we flee from ambiguity and complexity, poetry gives us permission to wonder
