Seamus Heaney
(Born 1939 in Castledawson, Londonderry)
The Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Heaney in 1995. they described his writing as -works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past.
Ken Smith
(Born 1938 in Rudston, East Riding of Yorkshire)
Ken Smith was a British poet and co-editor of Stand magazine from 1963-1972. One of his works, The Pity won the Gregory Award in 1964.
Ted Walker
(Born 1934 in Lancing, West Sussex)
He was a journalist, writer of short stories, poet and broadcaster. His poem the Fox on a Barn Door is about his view of the countryside of Sussex.
Elizabeth Bartlett
(Born 1924 in Deal, Kent)
Elizabeth Bartlett was a British poet. She worked for the health service and for the Home Care Service and it was in this environment that she was provided with material for some of her most emotive poems.
Derick Thomson
(Born 1921 in Bayble, Eilean Siar)
A writer of poetry as well a the creator of poetry anthologies. He wrote most of his works in Scottish Gaelic, in which he was know as Ruaraidh MacTḥmais.
Muriel Sarah Spark
(Born 1918 in Bruntsfield, Edinburgh)
She was named one of Britains greatest writers. One of her early works was The Comforters, in which the main character begins to realise that she is a character in a novel.
Sorley MacLean
(Born 1911 in Raasay, Highland)
MacLean was an influential poet, accredited with a renascence in the Gaelic language after deciding to write his poetry in his native tongue.
Thomas Alexander Robertson
(Born 1909 in Westerwick, Shetland Islands)
Thomas Alexander Robertson was better known by his pen name Vagaland. He is considered to be the most prominent Shetland poet of the 20th century.
Julian Bell
(Born 1908 in St Pancras, London)
He created two main books of poetry, Winter Movement in 1930 and Work for the Winter in 1936 among other works.
Geoffrey Grigson
(Born 1905 in Pelynt, Cornwall)
A British poet, writer and critic becoming known as an influential poet in the 1930s and was the editor of the poetry magazine New Verse from 1933 to 1939.
Noel Coward
(Born 1899 in Teddington, Middlesex)
Noel Coward was an English playwright, actor, singer, composer and director. From his teens onwards he had more than 50 plays published, composed hundreds of songs, created musical theatre works and wrote poetry and short stories. A few examples of his plays are This Happy Breed, Blythe Spirit and Relative Values
William Soutar
(Born 1898 in Perth, Perth and Kinross)
A noted literary figure in Scotland, who wrote in both Braid Scots which helped to make him popular in Scotland and in English.
Tom Lovatt Williams
(Born 1897 in Ellesmere, Shropshire)
Tom Lovatt-Williams was an English poet and writer whose topics were nature and the railways. He wrote a novel The Gentle Years which was read by Richard Harris on the BBCs Book at Bedtime.
William Forbes Marshall
(Born 1888 in Sixmilecross, Tyrone)
Marshall was a prolific author, broadcaster and Presbyterian Minister from Sixmilecross. He had a great knowledge of Mid Ulster English and wrote Ulster Sails West, about Ulster people settling in America.
Donald MacDonald
(Born 1887 in North Uist, Eilean Siar)
He was known as the Red Donald of Coruna. A well known Scottish War poet who wrote in Scottish Gaelic.
Edwin Muir
(Born 1887 in Deerness, Orkney Islands)
Edwin Muir was a poet, novelist and translator. He published seven volumes of poetry and wrote three novels and is remembered for his intensely felt and realistic poetry.
Hedd Wyn
(Born 1887 in Trawsfynydd, Gwynedd)
Hedd Wyn who was born Ellis Humphrey Evans was a Welsh language poet. He was influenced by romantic poetry and took his bardic name (Hedd Wyn) which in Welsh means blessed peace. He was killed at Pilckem Ridge, Ypres during the First World War and was posthumously awarded the Bards chair in 1917.
John Edward Masefield
(Born 1878 in Ledbury, Herefordshire)
Appointed Poet Laureate by George V in 1930 and remained so until 1967. Masefield wrote plays, novels, poetry, autobiographies and non-fiction.
William Henry Davies
(Born 1871 in Pillgwenlly, Newport)
Also known as W.H.Davies, he was a Welsh poet and writer. Spending a large part of his life as a tramp in the UK and the USA, his main topic was based on lifes hardship and his experiences as a tramp. He also wrote poems based on his love of nature. One of his notable works was The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp.
George William Russell
(Born 1867 in Lurgan, Armagh)
Russell was a writer, poet, artist and more. He wrote two novels, The Interpreters and The Avatars. There is a bust of Russell in Merrion Square in Dublin. There is also a plaque on 84 Merrion Square that reads, George William Russell AE 1867 – 1935 Poet Mystic Painter Co-operator worked here.
Mary Symon
(Born 1863 in Dufftown, Moray)
This Moravian is among the finest Scots war poets. She is a poet of national importance. Her collected poems were published in 1933 in Deveron Days.
Arthur Conan Doyle
(Born 1859 in Edinbrgh, Edinburgh)
A rather famous Scottish writer. Perhaps best known for crime fiction novels about a detective named, Sherlock Holmes. He was a prolific writer of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, historical novels and plays.
Mary Gleed Tuttiett
(Born 1846 in Newport, Isle of Wight)
In 1886, she wrote her best known work The Silence of Dean Maitland under her pen name of Maxwell Gray. The novel is set on the Isle of Wight and was dramatised as a black and white silent film called Sealed Lips in 1912. The film is set in a fictional Isle of Wight, where the dean commits murder but allows his wrongly accused friend to go to prison for his crime.
Edward Carpenter
(Born 1844 in Hove, East Sussex)
He was an influential poet who promoted the simple life and the arts and crafts movement. He was concerned with the plight of the common working poor.
William Morris
(Born 1843 in Walthamstow, London)
William Morris, the English textiles designer, artist and writer was influential in the Arts and Craft movement.
Emma Gifford
(Born 1840 in Plymouth, Devon)
Emma was a writer in her own right. As well as being a suffrage supporter and marcher. She was the first wife of Thomas Hardy. Hardy wrote some of his best poetry after her death in 1912. Inspired by his remorse.
Emma met Thomas at her home at St Juliot. She was the unpaid companion to Reverend Caddell Holder and he was an architect writing a report about the local church.
Thomas Hardy
(Born 1840 in Stinsford, Dorset)
Hardy is a famous British author, well known for works such as Far from the Madding Crowd, Tess of the dUrbervilles and more.
He wrote Far from the Madding Crown whilst at the home he was born in. A thatched cottage in Dorchester, thought to be the inspiration for his fictional Wessex.
Lewis Morris
(Born 1833 in Carmarthen, Carmarthenshire)
As well as being a politician and academic he was also a popular and well known poet. He was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1895.
Christina Rossetti
(Born 1830 in London, London)
Best known as a poet with works such as Goblin Market, Remember and In the bleak Midwinter. She was the sister of Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
Alfred William Hunt
(Born 1830 in Liverpool, Merseyside)
Winner of the Newdigate prize for poetry back in 1851, Alfred William Hunt was an accomplished painter in both oils and water colours.
George Meredith
(Born 1828 in Portsmouth, Hampshire)
Meredith received seven nominations for the Noble Prize for literature. His first novel was The Shaving of Shagpat - a bit like The Arabian Nights (English version 1706). His perhaps most famous piece of poetry was The Lark Ascending which inspired Ralph Vaughan Williams to write his classic work of the same name.
Denys Corbet
(Born 1826 in La Turquie Vale, Guernsey)
Denys Corbet was born at La Turquie Vale, Guernsey. He was a poet, naive painter and a school master. He mainly wrote in the Dgernesiais language which was used in Guernsey. Two examples of his poems are LTouar de Guernesey and Les Feuilles de la Foret. He is also known as a naive painter of cows and rural life.
Thomas Woolner
(Born 1825 in Hadliegh, Suffolk)
Thomas Woolner, English sculptor and poet, RA. He was a member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
Anna Bronte
(Born 1820 in Thornton, West Yorkshire)
An English Poetess and writer of fiction. Anna was perhaps most famous for her second and final novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.
Mary Ann Evans
(Born 1819 in Nuneaton, Warwickshire)
Perhaps better known by her pseudonym or pen name George Elliot. She was a novelist and poet, along with journalism and translation. She wrote seven novels. They were often historical and political, such as with Middlemarch which includes the status of women.
Arthur Hugh Clough
(Born 1819 in Liverpool, Merseyside)
Clough wrote the novel Amours de Voyage, poems and satire.
Patrick Branwell Bronte
(Born 1817 in Bradford, West Yorkshire)
Patrick Branwell Bronte, painter and poet, was the brother of writers Emily, Anne, and Charlotte Bronte.
Robert Browning
(Born 1812 in Camberwell, London)
Browning was a well know poet, perhaps most famous for The Pied Piper of Hamelin. He also coined the phrase, less is more.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
(Born 1806 in Kelloe, Durham)
Elizabeth Barrett Browning was a poet whose first known poem On the Cruelty of Forcement to Man was written at the age of six or eight. She became one of the most prominent poets of the Victorian era.
Henry Taylor
(Born 1800 in Bishop Middleham, Durham)
Taylor was a dramatist and poet. He became quite famous and had been compared to Shakespeare. For further reading his plays included Isaac Comnenus, The Virgin Widow, St. Clements Eve and Philip van Artevelde.
Patrick Bronte
(Born 1777 in Rathfriland, Down)
The father of the famous Bronte sisters, Patrick was a poet and writer. He actually changed his name from Brunty.
Charles Lamb
(Born 1775 in Inner Temple, London)
He is best known for Essays of Elia, where he is Elia. The essays first appeared in The London Magazine (est 1732 and the old literary periodical) in 1820 before being published together in 1823.
Walter Savage Landor
(Born 1775 in Warwick, Warwickshire)
Landon was a writer and poet. Perhaps best known for one work - Imaginary Conversations - which had five volumes - each with conversations between ancient Romans and Greeks.
James Hogg
(Born 1770 in Selkirk, Scottish Borders)
Writing both in English and Scots, Hogg wrote poetry, short stories, satirical sermons, essays and an unautorised biography of Sir Walter Scott.
William Spencer
(Born 1769 in Kensington, London)
William Spencer was an English poet from the Spencer family born in Kensington Palace. Two of his well known works were Beth Gelert and Too Late I Stayed.
Robert Burns
(Born 1759 in Alloway, South Ayrshire)
He was a poet and lyricist and is considered as the national poet of Scotland and a pioneer of the romantic movement. Among his many notable works, is his poem and song Auld Lang Syne which is usually sung at Hogmanay.
William Blake
(Born 1757 in Soho, London)
He was a painter, printmaker and poet but was not recognised during his lifetime. In 2002 he was placed at 38 in the BBCs poll of the 100 Greatest Britons and is now considered as highly influential in the history of the visual arts and poetry of the Romantic Age.
William Cowper
(Born 1731 in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire)
One of the most famous poets of his time, Cowper wrote poems about the everyday this in life. He also wrote hymns such as Amazing Grace. He also wrote: God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform He plants His footsteps in the sea And rides upon the storm. Deep in unfathomable mines Of never failing skill He treasures up His bright designs And works His sov reign will. Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take The clouds ye so much dread Are big with mercy and shall break
Thomas Blacklock
(Born 1721 in Annan, Dumfries and Galloway)
Unfortunately, Blacklock lost his site at an early age. He was read to in order for him to learn and over time was able to write his own poetry. His favourite authors were Thomson and Allan Ramsay.
Elkanah Settle
(Born 1648 in Dunstable, Bedfordshire)
Settle was a poet and play write. He wrote among other works - CAMBYSES King of Persia: A TRAGEDY. When the curtain first opens, we see the scene of the Royal Pavilion, Cambyses seated on a Throne attended by Otanes, Darius, Artaban, Prexaspes, Guards, Slaves, and Attendants with the Princess Mandana, and Ladies.
George Wither
(Born 1588 in Bentworth, Hampshire)
Wither was an early Jacobean poet and satirist. His writing often got him into trouble and he ended up in Marshalsea prison for libel in 1604.
William Alabaster
(Born 1567 in Hadleigh, Suffolk)
Alabaster was a English writer who often wrote in Latin. For example his work Roxana which was a drama.
William Shakespeare
(Born 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire)
Perhaps one of the most famous writers of all time. Shakespeare is often called the Bard of Avon. We do not know his actual birthday, so have used his baptism date instead.
Philip Sidney
(Born 1554 in Penshurst Place near Tonbridge, Kent)
A popular and influential Elizabethan poet best known for his works: Astrophel and Stella, An Apology for Poetry.
