Alan Charles Brownjohn (born 28 July 1931) is an English

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

and

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

. He has also worked as a teacher, lecturer, critic and broadcaster.

Life and work

Alan Brownjohn was born in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and educated at

Merton College, Oxford Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is one of the Colleges of Oxford University, constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the ...

. He taught in schools between 1957 and 1965. In 1960 he married the writer

Shirley Toulson Kathleen Shirley Toulson ( Dixon; 20 May 192423 September 2018) was an English writer, poet, journalist and local politician. Toulson attended Prior's Field School and worked with the Auxiliary Territorial Service during World War II. She mar ...

and in 1962 both were elected as Labour councillors in the Wandsworth Metropolitan Borough Council, and Brownjohn stood as the Labour Party candidate for Richmond (Surrey) in the

1964 general election The following elections occurred in 1964. Africa * 1964 Cameroonian parliamentary election * 1964 Central African Republic parliamentary election * 1964 Central African Republic presidential election * 1964 Dahomeyan general election * 1964 Gabo ...

, polling in second place. He and Touslon divorced in 1969. Brownjohn lectured at Battersea College of Education and South Bank Polytechnic until 1979, when he became a full-time writer. He participated in Philip Hobsbaum's weekly poetry discussion meetings known as

The Group The Group may refer to: Film and television * ''The Group'' (Australian TV series), 1971 situation comedy produced by Cash Harmon Television for ATN7 * ''The Group'' (Canadian TV series), 1968–70 music variety on CBC Television * ''The Group ...

, which also included Peter Porter, Martin Bell, Peter Redgrove, George MacBeth and Edward Lucie-Smith. Brownjohn is a Patron of

Humanists UK Humanists UK, known from 1967 until May 2017 as the British Humanist Association (BHA), is a charitable organisation which promotes secular humanism and aims to represent "people who seek to live good lives without religious or superstitious be ...

. Reviewing Brownjohn's ''Collected Poems'' (

Enitharmon Press Enitharmon Press is an independent British publishing house specialising in artists’ books, poetry, limited editions and original prints. The name of the press comes from the poetry of William Blake: Enitharmon was a character who represented ...

, 2006),

Anthony Thwaite Anthony Simon Thwaite (23 June 1930 – 22 April 2021) was an English poet and critic, widely known as the editor of his friend Philip Larkin's collected poems and letters. Early years and education Born in Chester, England, to Yorkshire par ...

wrote in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'': "...he is a social poet in the sense that if people in the future want to know what many lives were like in the second half of the 20th century, they should read Alan Brownjohn - observant, troubled, humane, scrupulous, wry, funny."Anthony Thwaite,
"The vodka in the verse"
''The Guardian'', 7 October 2006.

Bibliography

*''Travelers Alone'' (1954), poems *''The Railings'' (1961), poems *''To Clear the River'' (1964), novel, as John Berrington *''Penguin Modern Poets 14'' (1965), with Michael Hamburger, Charles Tomlinson *''The Lions' Mouths'' (1967) *''A Day by Indirections'' (1969), broadsheet poem *''First I Say This: A Selection of Poems for Reading Aloud'' (1969), editor *''Sandgrains On A Tray'' (1969) *''Woman Reading Aloud'' (1969) broadsheet poem *''Synopsis'' (1970) *''Brownjohn's Beasts'' (1970) *''Transformation Scene'' (1971) broadside poem *''An Equivalent'' (1971) poem *''New Poems 1970-71. A P.E.N. Anthology of Contemporary Poetry'' (1971), edited with

Seamus Heaney Seamus Justin Heaney (; 13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature.

and

Jon Stallworthy Jon Howie Stallworthy, (18 January 1935 – 19 November 2014) was a British literary critic and poet. He was Professor of English at the University of Oxford from 1992 to 2000, and Professor Emeritus in retirement. He was also a Fellow of Wolfs ...

*''Warrior's Career'' (1972) *''She Made of It'' (1974) *''A Song of Good Life'' (1975) *''Philip Larkin'' (1975) *''New Poetry 3, Arts Council anthology'' (1977), edited with

Maureen Duffy Maureen Patricia Duffy (born 21 October 1933) is an English poet, playwright, novelist and non-fiction author. Long an activist covering such issues as gay rights and animal rights, she campaigns especially on behalf of authors. She has receive ...

*''A Night in the Gazebo'' (1980) *''Nineteen Poems'' (1980) *''Collected Poems'' 1952–1983 (1983) *''The Old Flea-Pit'' (1987) *''The Observation Car'' (1990), poems *''The Gregory Anthology 1987–1990'' (1990), editor with

K. W. Gransden Karl Watts Gransden (24 February 192525 July 1998) was a British poet and an editor, translator, scholar, and teacher of Latin and English literature. He spent his career at the British Museum and the University of Warwick. Life K. W. Gransden ...

*''The Way You Tell Them: A Yarn of the Nineties'' (1990), novel *''Inertia Reel'' (1992), broadside poem *''In the Cruel Arcade'' (1994) *''The Long Shadows'' (1997), novel *''Horace by Pierre Corneille'' (1997), translator *''The Cat without E-mail'' (

2001) *''A Funny Old Year'' (2001), novel *''The Men Around Her Bed'' (Enitharmon Press, 2004) *''Windows on the Moon'' (2009), novel *''Ludbrooke and Others'' (Enitharmon Press, 2010) *''A Bottle and Other Poems'' (Enitharmon Press, 2015) *''parrot'' poem

Life and work

Bibliography

References

External links