THE poet UA Fanthorpe, who was once a leading contender for the post of Poet Laureate, has died.
A spokesman for Peterloo Poets, which published her work, said she passed away in a hospice near her home in Wotton-under-Edge on Tuesday, following an illness.
Ursula Askham Fanthorpe, born in 1929, was a candidate for the Poet Laureate position in 1999, when the job went to Andrew Motion.
She was the first woman in 315 years to be nominated for the post of professor of poetry at Oxford University in 1994.
In 2001 she was made a CBE for services to literature.
She died at the age of 79 and had lived with her partner Rosie Bailey for 44 years. See next week's Gazette for more on this story.
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