The lullaby is the spell whereby the mother attempts to transform herself back from an ogre to a saint.

He was political correspondent of the New Statesman where he worked alongside Christopher Hitchens Julian Barnes and Martin Amis. He was appointed Oxford Professor of Poetry in 1994 a post he held till 1999. " In response to criticisms of his comparatively slim 'Selected Poems' (2006) Fenton warned against the notion of poets churning out poetry in a regular automated fashion.

He is a former Oxford Professor of Poetry.