Context - A Minor Role

• The poem 'A Minor Role' was written by U. A. Fanthorpe
• U. A. Fanthorpe (1929-2009) didn't begin writing poetry until she was nearly 50 years old, and she published her first collection, 'Side Effects', in 1978
• U. A. Fanthorpe went on to publish eight more volumes of poetry, including 2003's 'Queuing for the Sun', in which 'A Minor Role' appears.
• U. A. Fanthorpe was born in Kent, England in 1929 - After teaching English for many years at Cheltenham Ladies College in England, Fanthorpe made an abrupt career change and took a job as a clerk at a psychiatric hospital
• U. A. Fanthorpe observed the psychiatric hospital and it made a lasting impact on Fanthorpe, who "felt the urge to tell the world" about both the "strange specialness" of the patients and the mundanity of life in such a "queer" place
• U. A. Fanthorpe likely draws from Fanthorpe's own experience with serious illness - Fanthorpe ultimately died in hospice care near her home in 2009, a few years after this poem was published