In Feminine Gospels, Carol Ann Duffy draws on the historical, the archetypal and the fantastical to create various visions - and revisions - of female identity.

These poems tell tall stories as though they were true confessions, and spin modern myths from real women seen in every aspect - as bodies and corpses, writers and workers, fairytale royals or girls-next-door.

'From verbal nuances to mind-expanding imaginative leaps, her words seem freshly plucked from the minds of non-poets - that is, she makes it look easy' - Charlotte Mendelson, author of The Exhibitionist, Observer