It has taken me about fifteen years to reading a book by Carol Ann Duffy. This is simply because I studied her for G.C.S.E English literature and that is enough to put any one off for a long time. Well time has moved on and so have I so I revisited her poetry and below is the result. 
 About the author 
 Carol Ann Duffy was appointed Poet Laureate in 2009. She has written for both children and adults, and her poetry has received many awards. 
 Blurb on the back 
 The Bees is Carol Ann Duffy's first collection of new poems as Poet Laureate. The Bees finds Duffy using her full poetic range: there are drinking songs, love poems, poems to the weather, poem of political anger. There are elegies, too, for beloved friends, and- most movingly- the poets own mother. As Duffy's voice rises in this collection, her music intensifies, and every poem patterns itself along. 
 Good bits about the book 
 As I explained at the beginning I came to reading this book in more of a negative frame of mind then I usually start a book in. This did not last long. I loved pretty much all of her poems. My favorite was The Falling Soldier, it had some of the best lines in such as 
 "Worse by far. The shadow you shed 
 as you fall 
 is,brother, your soul" 
 Another of my favorites was Big Ask, a political poem which I shared the message. I liked the fact the poems were short with brilliant lines such as the above. If, like me, you were put through alliteration and simile lectures through her poetry at school and having to sit through her slightly Diva antics at a reading trip, do not be put off, her poetry is fab even if she quite clearly know's it herself! 
 Bad bits about the book 
 Her poems are slightly made to be studied at school, take Bees for instance. As you have probably gathered I am not a fan of being reminded about school! 
 Rating for book 
 I give this book four out of five stars mostly because no matter how good a poet she is she could never be Maya Angelou! 
 By Lucy Williams