This is the second edition of Deryn Rees-Jones' popular study on an important contemporary women poet and playwright. This study looks at Duffy's work from her early development and involvement with the Liverpool poets in the 1970s, through to her most recent collection. It concentrates on the way in which Duffy develops her use of the dramatic monologue and the love poem and traces her interest in surrealism and a tradition of European modernism. While acknowledging the importance of her popular appeal the book also makes a case for Duffy as a serious and important poet who engages with key issues of gender and identity in innovative and important ways. Deryn Rees-Jones places Duffy at the forefront of a change in poetry in Britain, and sees her as a writer who both heralds and opens up the way for those writing after her. This work is aimed at: students of literature in schools and in higher education; teachers of literature; scholars valuing the extensive and up-to-date bibliography; and sixth-form, academic and public libraries. Duffy is widely read and studied as a contemporary woman poet. It is written by a practising poet, herself influenced by Duffy's work. No other long individual study is currently available.