Carol Anne Duffy is new Poet Laureate

From BBC News:

Carol Ann Duffy has been named as the new Poet Laureate, the first woman to be appointed in the 341-year history of the post.

Duffy, 53, who takes over immediately from Andrew Motion and will serve 10 years in the position, says she will give the £5,750 annual payment away.

The author, who is best known for her collection The World's Wife, is also the first Scot to be named Laureate.

Duffy said she felt "very honoured and humbled" by her appointment.

BBC News also has a profile of Carol Anne Duffy by Mark Savage.

Critics have praised Duffy for her storytelling (her works have been called "minutely compressed novels") and even more so for the way she seems to inhabit her characters, memorably described by novelist Charlotte Mendelson as "ventriloquism".