Angela Topping

Angela Topping (born 2 October 1954) is a English poet and literary critic.

Life
Topping was born in Widnes, Cheshire to working class parents and educated in Liverpool at Broughton Hall Grammar School for Girls. After graduating from the University of Liverpool with a degree in English and Classical Civilization she went on to study for a postgraduate degree in Victorian Studies. Although writing from a young age (she first published poetry at the age of nineteen in Arts Alive Merseyside) Topping married and raised two daughters while writing her first two collections She has published three solo poetry collections, Dandelions for Mothers' Day (1988, 1989), The Fiddle (1999) and The Way We Came (2007). She has edited two poetry anthologies, the first a collection of Christians writing and the second a festschrift for the Liverpool-based poet Matt Simpson, featuring works by U.A. Fanthorpe, Anne Stevenson, Roger McGough and Kenneth Muir. The friendship of Matt Simpson was a formative influence on Topping's work and continued until his death in 2009.

After working in education for twenty years, most notably at Upton Hall School FCJ, Topping now concentrates full-time on writing and has been the author of several critical works for Greenwich Exchange.

Poetry

 * Dandelions for Mothers’ Day. Stride 1988 and 1989.
 * The Fiddle: New and Selected Poems. Stride 1999.
 * The Way We Came. Bluechrome 2007.
 * The New Generation (Children's poetry). Salt 2010.

Criticism

 *  Focus on Spies by Michael Frayn. Greenwich Exchange 2008.
 * Focus on The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter. Greenwich Exchange 2009.
 * Focus on Selected Poems by John Clare – Everyman Edition (in progress)

Edited

 * The Least Thing (foreword by George Szirtes). Stride 1989.
 * Making Connections, A Festschrift for Matt Simpson. Stride 1996.
 * Manchester Poets Competition Anthologies I & II
 * Brando’s Hat editorial board