as her own dancing cow. The consummate openness of this brilliantly intelligent selection extends the possibilities for poetry written in English. It reminds us that she remains a pioneer among contemporary British writers. We should be grateful for her." In 2010, Shapcott published Of Mutability with Faber and Faber, her first collection for 12 years. The 45 poems explore the nature of change, in the body, within the natural world and inside relationships. The book of poems was awarded the Costa Book of the Year for 2010, beating contenders in Fiction, Non-Fiction and other categories. The judges commented that the book was accessible, "very special and unusual and uplifting... The subject matter was so relevant that if any poetry book could capture the spirit of life in 2011, this would be it". Sinclair Mackay in the Daily Telegraph wrote: "Of Mutability, is so especially rich and resonant that it deserves the widest possible readership, even among those who never usually think of reading poems...And there is a dazzling variety of tone and colour and subject throughout - Shapcott's language dances lightly, and often with wit." The Transformers is an unpublished collection of public lectures given by Shapcott in 2001 as part of her Professorship at Newcastle. She has written lyrics or had her poems set to music by composers such as Nigel Osborne, Errollyn Wallen and John Woolrich. The American composer Stephen Montague created the work The Creatures Indoors, from her poetry. It was premiered by the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican Centre in London in 1997. She was a judge for the 2014 Griffin Poetry Prize, as well as the 2013 Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine. Prizes and awards 1982 – South West Arts Literature Award 1985 – National Poetry Competition, First Prize 1989 – Commonwealth Poetry Prize, Best First Collection, Electroplating the Baby 1989 – New Statesman Prudence Farmer Award 1991 – National Poetry Competition, First Prize 1999 – Forward Poetry Prize, Best Poetry Collection of the Year, My Life Asleep 2002 – Created CBE (Refused) 2006 – Cholmondeley Award 2010 – Costa Book Award, Poetry, Of Mutability 2011 – The Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry Books Poetry collections Electroplating the Baby, Bloodaxe, 1988, Phrase Book, Oxford University Press, 1992, A Journey to the Inner Eye: A Guide for All. (South Bank Centre, 1996) Motherland, Gwaithel & Gilwern, 1996, Penguin Modern Poets; book 12, featuring Helen