Carol Ann Duffy has been a bold and original voice in British Poetry since the publication of Standing Female Nude in 1985. Since then she has won every major poetry prize in the United Kingdom and sold over one million copies of her books around the world. She was appointed Poet Laureate in 2009.

Her first collected poems includes most of the poems from her eight acclaimed volumes of adult poetry, as well a handful of poems collected here for the first time. Endlessly varied, wonderfully inventive and emotionally powerful, this book is the perfect introduction for new readers and a glorious opportunity for old friends to celebrate thirty years' work by one of the country's greatest literary talents. Collected Poems confirms indisputably that 'Carol Ann Duffy is the most humane and accessible poet of our time' (Rose Tremain, Guardian)