Rapture written by Carol Ann Duffy performed by Juliet Stevenson on CD (Abridged)

The effortless virtuosity, drama and humanity of Carol Ann Duffy's verse have made her our most admired contemporary poet. Rapture, her seventh collection, is a book-length love-poem, and a moving act of personal testimony --

but what sets these poems apart from other treatments of the subject is Duffy's refusal to simplify the contradictions of love, and read its transformations -- infatuation, longing, passion, commitment, rancour, separation and grief -- as either redemptive or destructive.

Rapture is a map of real love, in all its churning complexity; simultaneously direct and subtle, with poems that will find deep resonance in the experience of most readers, it is a collection that can and does speak for us all.

‘These poems are outstanding; intellectually and emotionally complete, popular as love poems perhaps should be and can be, they are also masterly examples of poetic form . . . Rapture is brilliant, beautiful, and heart-aching’ Jeanette Winterson, The Times 

Juliet Stevenson's deft reading extracts every ounce of the lover's fire, vulnerability and heartache'Rachel Redford, Observer