British poet Ursula Askham Fanthorpe was born and raised in Kent. Fanthorpe was born on 22 July 1929 in south-east London. U.A. Fanthorpe  was an English poet. She published under the form U. A. Fanthorpe. The daughter of a judge, she earned a BA and an MA at Saint Anne’s College, Oxford University. She taught at Cheltenham Ladies’ College for 16 years, serving as head of the English department for eight years. In her 40s, she left education to work as a clerk and receptionist at a psychiatric hospital, an experience that led her to write the poems in her first book,Side Effects (1978).

She published her first volume of poetry,Side Effects, in 1978. Her collections issued by the small publisher Peterloo Poets received widespread recognition. Fanthorpe was the first woman nominee (1995) for the post of Oxford Professor of Poetry and in 1999 was considered a contender for poet laureate. When performing poetry readings she sometimes shared the stage with her partner of 44 years, poet R.V. (Rosie) Bailey. Fanthorpe’s later collections include Homing In (2006) and From Me to You (2007). Her many honours and awards included a Royal Society of Literature fellowship (1988) and the Arts Council Writers’ Award (1994). Fanthorpe was made CBE in 2001, and in 2003 she was awarded the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry. Fanthorpe died, aged 79, on 28 April 2009, in a hospice near her home in Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire.