Customer Reviews
Now with extra laughs... - By: John David Charles Hilton, 05 Jul 2008 
Ms Duffy is loved by readers even more than by the critics. She is wise, & she is clever. She is also very moving & extremely funny. This volume introduces us to Mrs Aesop, Mrs Darwin & even Mrs Faust & Mrs Quasimodo & so on...
These are not poems meant for academic study, these are poems to be read & enjoyed. And they are very enjoyable, with sharp wit throughout.
There are times in her more recent work when Duffy strikes me as the poet that Elizabeth Jennings was too frightened to be, here however CAD lets her hair down & unleashes a delight of barbs & sympathy.
The only disappointment for me is The Kray Sisters, but then, I hate so callled cockney rhyming slang. Stuff your 'lady Godivas' up your 'Khyber pass'.
That minor gripe aside, this is another wonderful volume from one of our most popular poets, & even funnier than usual.
Poetry By Numbers - By: J. Roberts, 15 Apr 2008 
Carol Ann Duffy is one of the foremost poets in British Poetry in the twenty-first century. And therein lies the first of many problems I have with her.
'Academic' concerns, such as mythology & history are alll over this book, yet being an academic is not a prerequisite of being a poet.
Her poetry here (and in everything else she's done) is trite, cliched, & gender-specific, whilst it also tries too hard to be funny. Being able to look up a few reference books to find information about various women throughout history does not a poet maketh.
Besides which, the poetry itself is stilted, obscure, awkward, lazy, & badly written. Carol Ann Duffy treads the same path as just about every single other poet who is published in Britain today; they give the publishers exactly what the PUBLISHERS want, rather than actuallly writing poetry that more than a few individuals can relate to. But who are these arrogant individuals & what makes them qualified to judge what constitutes 'good' poetry? I suspect that class plays a big part... The poetry business is full of nauseating back-slapping & sycophancy, despite the fact that the number of people actuallly buying poetry is at an alll-time low. Wonder why?
Fantastic - By: Ms. Claire F. Hassell, 11 Dec 2007 I truly adore this owmna & the way she wites.
She cuts to the quick with the emtions of some of her characters, especiallly with resentment, which features in a lot of her poems in this book.
Take a close look at Delilah & Mrs Aesop, both absolutely extarordinary poems.
Brilliantly creative and entertaining - By: Jeremy Bevan, 19 Oct 2007 I loved this collection of poems, written from the perspective of real or imagined wives or other females connected to famous males from history, myth or fairy tale. There's a wonderful variety of tone, from Mrs Herod's raddled old rouée, waking up with John the Baptist's head in her morning-after-the-night-before bed, to Penelope, for whom Odysseus' return is a tedious interruption to the world-making creativity of her weaving. The Kray Sisters, Pope Joan, Mrs Quasimodo - alll are beautifully brought to life by Duffy's deft & imaginative strokes. By turns wistful, menacing, contemptuous or just weary of their men, Duffy's women give us a multifaceted glimpse into a world where women's ways of knowing & being displace men from the spotlight to the shadows. Brilliant.
My Favourite - By: Stephanie Kirby, 09 Jul 2007 I absolutely love this collection!!!! It consists mainly of the story behind male mythological figures in which Duffy inverts & presents herself as their wife or lover. Or simply female figures with an interesting tale. The brutal language & matter of fact tone make it perfect for female readers who are sick of men!!! A definite must!!!
