Celebrated poet Carol Ann Duffy enchants audience at Cultural Exchanges 2015

Renowned poet and playwright Dame Carol Ann Duffy enchanted a sell-out audience last night as part of Cultural Exchanges Festival at De Montfort University Leicester (DMU).

The revered Dame, who is also Britain’s Poet Laureate and is featured on GCSE and A-level syllabi, gave an hour-long reading on Tuesday evening as the centrepiece of the second day of the annual festival, which is entirely organised by DMU students.

Duffy’s prizewinning poetry, for both children and adults, spans 30 years, and she has also had her plays performed at the Liverpool Playhouse and the Almeida Theatre in London. She is the first woman and LGBT person to hold the position of Poet Laureate.

Duffy was personally selected for the role by the Queen in 2009 and was described by The Times in that year as Britain’s ‘most admired contemporary poet’.