Francis Robert Le Plastrier Warner (21 October 1937 - 7 December 2021) was an English poet, playwright, musician, and scholar. Warner received early notice for his lyrical poetry but focused most of his later literary career on Agora, a cycle of plays that explore the development of Western culture up to the late Twentieth Century. An Emeritus Fellow of St. Peter's College, Oxford, and Honorary Fellow of St. Catharine's College, Cambridge, Warner was also a noted advocate for experimental theatre, leading attempts during the 1960s and 1970s to establish a Samuel Beckett Theatre for avant garde theatre production in Oxford.

Early life

Francis Warner was born in Bishopthorpe, Yorkshire, England, to Reverend Hugh Compton Warner and Nancy Le Plastrier Owen. After serving as vicar of Bishopthorpe from 1932-1938, Rev Warner became vicar of St Martin of Tours in Epsom in 1938, an incumbency he held until his resignation in 1950 to become education secretary of the Church of England Moral Welfare Council. Rev Warner and his family lived in The Old Vicarage, Epsom, throughout World War II, an experience recalled later by Francis in the collection Beauty for Ashes: Selected Prose and Related Documents and the text of David Goode's Blitz Requiem. The elder Warner, who had become an honorary canon of Guildford Cathedral in 1948, died in London, age 51, after a long illness, on 1 July 1956. Francis was educated at

Christ's Hospital Christ's Hospital is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 11–18) with a royal charter located to the south of Horsham in West Sussex. The school was founded in 1552 and received its first royal charter in 1553 ...

London College of Music London College of Music (LCM) is a music school in London, England. It is one of eight separate schools that make up the University of West London. History LCM was founded in 1887 and existed as an independent music conservatoire based at Gr ...

, and

St Catharine's College, Cambridge St Catharine's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1473 as Katharine Hall, it adopted its current name in 1860. The college is nicknamed "Catz". The college is located in the historic city-centre of Camb ...

. Whilst at Cambridge, Warner was C.S. Lewis's last graduate student.

University career

Francis spent much of his academic career at

St Peter's College, Oxford St Peter's College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford and is located in New Inn Hall Street, Oxford, United Kingdom. It occupies the site of two of the university's medieval halls, dating back to at least the 14th c ...

, where he was Lord White Fellow, and Tutor in English Literature from 1965–99. After retirement, he was elected Honorary Fellow of

, and Emeritus Fellow of

.https://www.caths.cam.ac.uk/dr-f-warner

Experimental Theatre in Oxford

Writing

Warner produced several volumes of lyrical poetry early in his career and was honoured for his poetry as the recipient of the Messing Award (now known as the

St. Louis Literary Award The St. Louis Literary Award has been presented yearly since 1967 to a distinguished figure in literature. It is sponsored by the Saint Louis University Library Associates. Winners Past Recipients of the Award: *2023 Neil Gaiman *2022 Arundhati ...

) in 1972 by the St. Louis University Library Associates. Warner began writing plays in the early 1970s, creating a body of theatrical work that would later be styled as the dramatic play cycle Agora. In addition to the plays in Agora, Warner continued writing poetry, publishing several volumes throughout his later literary years.

Early Poetry

Agora

The dramatic cycle Agora encompasses the entirety of Warner's literary output as a dramatist. Consisting of 16 individual plays, loosely following a chronological order of action, Agora tracks the development of Western culture from ancient Greece to the present.

Musical Settings

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Warner, Francis 1937 births 2021 deaths 20th-century English poets English male dramatists and playwrights Fellows of St Peter's College, Oxford Fellows of St Catharine's College, Cambridge