Carol Ann Duffy for A Christmas Eve Ghost Story

We're delighted to present a festive evening of poetry to celebrate the enchanting new Christmas poem from Carol Ann Duffy, former Poet Laureate.

It’s Christmas Eve in London’s financial district. A billionaire in his penthouse suite is visited by the ghost of Sarah Whitehead, the grief-stricken nun who has haunted the Bank of England for hundreds of years. What follows is a spellbinding journey through the night and around the globe as the ghost shows the billionaire the human suffering on which his excessive wealth depends. A gorgeously illustrated tale for our times with all the magic of Dickens, reminding us that love is the greatest treasure of all.

Carol Ann Duffy lives in Manchester, where she is Professor and Creative Director of the Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University. Her poetry has received many awards, including the Signal Prize for Children's Verse, the Whitbread, Forward and T. S. Eliot Prizes, and the Lannan and E. M. Forster Prize in America. She was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 2009 to 2019. Her many collections include Mean Time, Love Poems and The Bees, which won the Costa Poetry Award. She was made a DBE in the 2015 New Year Honours list. In 2021, she was awarded the international lifetime achievement award the Golden Wreath for her achievements in poetry.