Carol Ann Duffy set for Holyrood Palace exhibition

THE Glasgow-born poet Carol Ann Duffy is to take centre-stage in a major exhibition at Holyrood Palace next year – which will celebrate some 350 years of Britain’s poet laureates.

Carol Ann Duffy is helping organise the major event. Picture: Phil Wilkinson

She will be helping to organise the Edinburgh Festival show at the Queen’s Gallery which will mark the half-way point in her own tenure in the role.

It will be the first major exhibition of work by the 57-year-old poet, who became the first Scot and the first woman to be appointed to the position in May 2009, replacing Andrew Motion.

About half the exhibition – which will run for four months at the palace – will be devoted to the writer’s work, including specially created versions of her poems by the Manchester-born textual artist Stephen Raw, a regular collaborator with Duffy.

The exhibition, which opens next August, is organised by the Queen’s own Royal Collection Trust, and will feature a host of little-seen items presented by the various poet laureates to reigning monarchs, as well as other literary artefacts.

These include original manuscripts, annotated collections and images of the likes of John Dryden, the first poet laureate, William Wordsworth, John Betjeman and Ted Hughes.

The exhibition will chart the development of the role, offer an insight into the background to some of the poems and lift the lid on the relationships between poets and monarchs.

Duffy said: “Being poet laureate for nearly five years now has been a joy and a privilege. I’ve been truly excited to work with the Royal Collection on this exhibition.”