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Frances Margaret Horovitz ( Hooker; 13 February 1938 – 2 October 1983) was an
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
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 wri ...
and
broadcaster.
Life and work
Frances Margaret Hooker (who adopted and wrote under the surname of her first husband,
Michael Horovitz
Michael Yechiel Ha-Levi Horovitz (4 April 1935 – 7 July 2021) was a German-born British poet, editor, visual artist and translator who was a leading part of the Beat Poetry scene in the UK. In 1959, while still a student, he founded the "tr ...
) was born in
Walthamstow, London, in 1938 but moved with her family to
Nottingham
Nottingham ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robi ...
in 1942 when her father was appointed manager of a munitions factory there. In 1947 they returned to London and Frances attended
Walthamstow School for Girls. She went on to
Bristol University to study English and Drama and then to the
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA; ) is a drama school in London, England, that provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in the Bloomsbury area of Central London, close to the Senat ...
in London. As a reader and presenter for the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
, she acquired a reputation for care of preparation and quality of delivery. Her poetry has been described as "not that of the 'age' but of the earth" by
Anne Stevenson. However, according to
Peter Levi
Peter Chad Tigar Levi, FSA, FRSL (16 May 1931, in Ruislip – 1 February 2000, in Frampton-on-Severn) was a British poet, archaeologist, Jesuit priest, travel writer, biographer, academic and prolific reviewer and critic. He was Professor of P ...
, such is her economy of means in the poems "that one runs the risk of not noticing how effective they are"; the effect of her writing is cumulative and "adds up to a shadow of something more vast and powerful than any individual work". Her writing gives voice principally to perceptions of the natural world, but also ancient history and human relationships within its framework.
Frances married two poets: Michael Horovitz in 1964 and Roger Garfitt just before her death in 1983. Her only child
Adam Horovitz, also a poet, was born in 1971. She herself did not really start writing poetry until shortly after marrying Michael. Much of her paid work was in teaching part-time in schools and reading or performing the work of others on stage, radio and television. In the broadcasting world she started as the protégée of
George MacBeth
George Mann MacBeth (19 January 1932 – 16 February 1992) was a Scottish poet and novelist.
Biography
George MacBeth was born in Shotts, Lanarkshire, Scotland. When he was three, his family moved to Sheffield in England. He was educated in Sh ...
. In 1970 she and Michael bought the cottage of Mullions in the
Slad
Slad is a village in Gloucestershire, England, in the Slad Valley about from Stroud on the B4070 road from Stroud to Birdlip.
Slad is notable for being the home and final resting place of Laurie Lee, whose novel ''Cider with Rosie'' (1959) ...
Valley, where she remained based until the end of 1980. After that she and Adam moved to join Roger Garfitt in
Sunderland, where she was eventually diagnosed with skin cancer in her left ear. Operations and other treatments failed to stop its spread and she died in the
Royal Marsden hospital
The Royal Marsden Hospital (RM) is a specialist cancer treatment hospital in London based in Kensington and Chelsea, next to the Royal Brompton Hospital, in Fulham Road with a second site in Belmont, close to Sutton Hospital, High Down and D ...
at the age of 45.
[Most biographical details are from Brocard Sewell's "Frances Horovitz: A Memoir", Sewell, 1987, pp. 19–63.]
Publications
*''Poems'' (St. Albert’s, 1967)
*''Dream: A Poem'' (Sceptre, 1969)
*''The High Tower'' (New Departures, 1970)
*''Letter to Be Sent by Air'' (Sceptre, 1974)
*''Elegy'' (Sceptre, 1976)
*''Water Over Stone'' (Enitharmon, 1980)
*''Wall'' (a collaboration (L.Y.C.) 1981)
*''Rowlstone Haiku'' (with Roger Garfitt, Five Seasons, 1982); the poems are reprinted in Oswald Jones, ''Winterreise: An Exhibition of Landscape Photographs'' (Canterbury, 1982)
*''Snow Light, Water Light'' (Bloodaxe, 1983)
*''Collected Poems'' (Bloodaxe/Enitharmon, 1984, edited by Roger Garfitt; 2nd edition, 2011, includes CD-ROM of readings by, and an interview with, Frances Horovitz)
Publications about Frances Horovitz
*Horovitz, Michael (ed. 1984), ''A Celebration of and for Frances Horovitz (1938–1983)'' (New Departures; 2nd edn, 1984, issued as New Departures, vol. 16)
*Sewell, Brocard (ed. 1987), ''Frances Horovitz—Poet: A Symposium'' (Aylesford Press)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Horovitz, Frances
1938 births
1983 deaths
English women poets
20th-century English women writers
20th-century English poets
People from Walthamstow
People educated at Walthamstow School for Girls
Alumni of the University of Bristol
Deaths from skin cancer
deaths from cancer in England