Fiona Pitt-Kethley Biography

British poet, born in Edgware; she studied at Chelsea College of Art and subsequently worked as a film extra, theatre usherette, and bric-à-brac dealer. Her earlier publications as a poet include London (1984), Rome (1985), and The Tower of Glass (1985); their historical orientation differs considerably from the emphatically modern idioms of her better-known work. Sky Ray Lolly (1986) brought her wide notice, with its uncompromisingly sexual content that remains a clear characteristic of her verse in Private Parts (1987) and The Perfect Man (1989). Many of her poems present acerbically humorous anecdotes illustrative of sexual attitudes and social behaviour she sees as typifying contemporary hypocrisies. A robust blank verse is her most frequently used form. Later collections of poems include Dogs (1993) and A School for Life (1993). Her other publications include Journeys to the Underworld (1988), an account of her travels in Italy while investigating the myths of the sibyls; The Pan Principle (1994), exploring Greece and its mythology; and The Misfortunes of Nigel (1991), a novel satirizing the London literary scene. She is the editor of The Literary Companion to Sex (1992) and The Literary Companion to Low Life (1995).