Life and work

Pelynt Pelynt ( kw, Pluwnennys, Pluwnonna) is a civil parish and village in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is 20 miles (32 km) west of Plymouth and four miles (6.5 km) west-northwest of Looe. Pelynt had a population of around 1,124 ...

Looe Looe (; kw, Logh, ) is a coastal town and civil parish in south-east Cornwall, England, with a population of 5,280 at the 2011 census. Looe is west of Plymouth and south of Liskeard, divided in two by the River Looe, East Looe ( kw, links ...

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

Polperro Polperro ( kw, Porthpyra, meaning ''Pyra's cove'') is a large village, civil parish, and fishing harbour within the Polperro Heritage Coastline in south Cornwall, England. Its population is around 1,554. Polperro, through which runs the River ...

St John's School

Leatherhead Leatherhead is a town in the Mole Valley District of Surrey, England, about south of Central London. The settlement grew up beside a ford on the River Mole, from which its name is thought to derive. During the late Anglo-Saxon period, Leathe ...

St Edmund Hall

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

After graduating from Oxford University, Grigson took a job at the London office of the ''

Yorkshire Post ''The Yorkshire Post'' is a daily broadsheet newspaper, published in Leeds in Yorkshire, England. It primarily covers stories from Yorkshire although its masthead carries the slogan "Yorkshire's National Newspaper". It was previously owned by ...

'', from where he moved on to become literary editor of the ''

Morning Post ''The Morning Post'' was a conservative daily newspaper published in London from 1772 to 1937, when it was acquired by ''The Daily Telegraph''. History The paper was founded by John Bell. According to historian Robert Darnton, ''The Morning Po ...

''. He first came to prominence in the 1930s as a poet, then as editor from 1933 to 1939 of the influential poetry magazine ''New Verse''. Among important works by many influential poets — notably Louis MacNeice,

Stephen Spender Sir Stephen Harold Spender (28 February 1909 – 16 July 1995) was an English poet, novelist and essayist whose work concentrated on themes of social injustice and the class struggle. He was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry by th ...

, Dylan Thomas,

W. H. Auden Wystan Hugh Auden (; 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry was noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in ...

Paul Éluard Paul Éluard (), born Eugène Émile Paul Grindel (; 14 December 1895 – 18 November 1952), was a French poet and one of the founders of the Surrealist movement. In 1916, he chose the name Paul Éluard, a matronymic borrowed from his maternal ...

and Grigson himself — ''New Verse'' featured

concrete poetry Concrete poetry is an arrangement of linguistic elements in which the typographical effect is more important in conveying meaning than verbal significance. It is sometimes referred to as visual poetry, a term that has now developed a distinct me ...

by the sculptor Alberto Giacometti (translated by

David Gascoyne David Gascoyne (10 October 1916 – 25 November 2001) was an English poet associated with the Surrealist movement, in particular the British Surrealist Group. Additionally he translated work by French surrealist poets. Early life and surrealis ...

) and folk poetry from tribal villages of the Jagdalpür Tahsil district of

Bastar State Bastar state was a princely state in India during the British Raj. It was founded in the early 14th century by Annamaraja, a brother of the last ruler of the Kakatiya dynasty, Prataparudra II. It is today used to refer the same region, called ...

, Chhattisgarh, transcribed from the

Halbi language Halbi (also Bastari, Halba, Halvas, Halabi, Halvi) is an Eastern Indo-Aryan language, transitional between Odia and Marathi. It is spoken by at least 766,297 people across the central part of India. The Mehari (or Mahari) dialect is mutuall ...

by Grigson's brother Wilfrid Grigson. During this period, Grigson published some of his own poetry under the pseudonym Martin Boldero. An anthology of poems that appeared in the first 30 issues of ''New Verse'' was published in hardback by

Faber & Faber Faber and Faber Limited, usually abbreviated to Faber, is an independent publishing house in London. Published authors and poets include T. S. Eliot (an early Faber editor and director), W. H. Auden, Margaret Storey, William Golding, Samuel ...

in 1939, and re-published in 1942; the second edition states that the first "came out on the day war was declared". During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Grigson worked in the editorial department of the

BBC Monitoring BBC Monitoring (BBCM) is a division of the British Broadcasting Corporation which monitors, and reports on, mass media worldwide using open-source intelligence. Based at New Broadcasting House, the BBC's headquarters in central London, it has ...

Service at Wood Norton near Evesham, Worcestershire, and as a talks producer 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. ...

...

About Britain About Britain is a series of 13 books published by Collins for the Festival of Britain in 1951 under the general editorship of Geoffrey Grigson who also wrote the first two volumes in the series.William Collins to coincide with the

Festival of Britain The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition and fair that reached millions of visitors throughout the United Kingdom in the summer of 1951. Historian Kenneth O. Morgan says the Festival was a "triumphant success" during which people: ...

. After the repression of the

Hungarian Revolution of 1956 The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 10 November 1956; hu, 1956-os forradalom), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was a countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the Hunga ...

, at the initiative of

, Grigson joined a group of British writers and artists who applied for visas to visit dissidents in

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

. The visas were refused. Grigson was the castaway featured in an edition of

Roy Plomley Francis Roy Plomley, ( ; 20 January 1914 – 28 May 1985) was an English radio broadcaster, producer, playwright and novelist. He is best remembered for devising the BBC Radio series ''Desert Island Discs'', which he hosted from its inception i ...

's ''

Desert Island Discs ''Desert Island Discs'' is a radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It was first broadcast on the BBC Forces Programme on 29 January 1942. Each week a guest, called a "castaway" during the programme, is asked to choose eight recordings (usua ...

'' on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

first broadcast on 16 October 1982. In 1984, he was interviewed by

Hermione Lee Dame Hermione Lee, (born 29 February 1948) is a British biographer, literary critic and academic. She is a former President of Wolfson College, Oxford, and a former Goldsmiths' Professor of English Literature in the University of Oxford and Pr ...

in an edition of

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

's ''Book Four''. Grigson in his later life lived partly in

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

, England, and partly in a cave house in Trôo, a

troglodyte A troglodyte is a human cave dweller, from the Greek 'hole, mouse-hole' and 'go in, dive in'. Troglodyte and derived forms may also refer to: Historiography * ''Troglodytae'' or ''Troglodyti'', an ancient group of people from the African Red ...

village in the Loir-et-Cher

département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (french: département, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. Ninety ...

in France, which features in his poetry. He died in 1985 in

Broad Town Broad Town is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, about southeast of Royal Wootton Bassett and southwest of Swindon. The parish includes the hamlet of Thornhill and the farming hamlet of Cotmarsh. Since 1996 the village and surro ...

, Wiltshire, and is buried there in Christ Church churchyard.

Family

Born in 1905, Grigson was the youngest of seven sons of Canon William Shuckforth Grigson (1845–1930), a

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

clergyman who had settled in

as vicar of

, and Mary Beatrice Boldero, herself the daughter of a clergyman. The inscription on his father's slate headstone in Pelynt Churchyard is the work of

Eric Gill Arthur Eric Rowton Gill, (22 February 1882 – 17 November 1940) was an English sculptor, letter cutter, typeface designer, and printmaker. Although the ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' describes Gill as ″the greatest artist-cra ...

, 1931. Five of Grigson's six brothers died serving in the

First First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

and Second World Wars, among them

John Grigson Air Commodore John William Boldero Grigson (26 January 1893 – 3 July 1943) was a highly decorated British pilot who served in the Royal Naval Air Service and Royal Air Force in World War I, continuing his service and serving in World War II ...

. This was one of the highest rates of mortality suffered by any British family during the conflicts of the 20th century.Jeremy Archer
"One Family's Sacrifice – The Story of the Seven Sons of Canon and Mrs William Shuckforth Grigson"
The Keep Military Museum, Dorchester,

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...

. Grigson's one surviving brother, Wilfrid Grigson, was killed in an air crash in 1948 while serving as a post-Partition official in

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

. Geoffrey Grigson's first wife was Frances Franklin Galt (who died in 1937 of

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, i ...

). With her, he founded the poetry magazine ''New Verse''. They had one daughter, Caroline (who was married to designer

Colin Banks Colin Banks (16 January 1932 – 9 March 2002) was a British designer who co-founded Banks & Miles, designers and typographers, in London in 1958 with John Miles. Major clients of the partnership included the Consumers' Association, the Post Offi ...

). With his second wife, Berta Emma Kunert, Grigson had two children, Anna and

Lionel Grigson Lionel Grigson (12 February 1942 – 14 June 1994) was an English jazz pianist, cornettist, trumpeter, composer, writer and teacher, who in the 1980s started the jazz course at the Guildhall School of Music. As Simon Purcell wrote in ''The Ind ...

. Following divorce from his second wife, Grigson married

Jane Grigson Jane Grigson (born Heather Mabel Jane McIntire; 13 March 1928 – 12 March 1990) was an English cookery writer. In the latter part of the 20th century she was the author of the food column for ''The Observer'' and wrote numerous books about Eu ...

, ''née'' McIntire (1928–90). Their daughter is

Sophie Grigson Hester Sophia Frances Grigson (born 19 June 1959) is an English cookery writer and celebrity cook. She has followed the same path and career as her mother, Jane Grigson. Her father was the poet and writer Geoffrey Grigson, and her half-brother ...

. Among Grigson's grandchildren is the political scientist

Giacomo Benedetto Giacomo Benedetto FRSA (born August 1972) is a British Italian political scientist and holder of a Jean Monnet Chair at Royal Holloway, University of London. He is an expert in European Union politics, and has researched and published extensive ...

Honours and legacy

Grigson was awarded the

Duff Cooper Prize The Duff Cooper Prize is a literary prize awarded annually for the best work of history, biography, political science or occasionally poetry, published in English or French. The prize was established in honour of Duff Cooper, a British diplomat, Ca ...

for his 1971 volume of poetry ''Discoveries of Bones and Stones''. A collection of tributes entitled ''Grigson at Eighty'', compiled by R. M. Healey (Cambridge:

Rampant Lions Press The Rampant Lions Press was a fine letterpress printing firm in Britain, operating from 1924 to 2008. The firm was founded by Will Carter (24 September 1912 – 17 March 2001), publishing its first book in 1936, and was continued by his son, Seba ...

), was published in 1985, the year of his death. In 2005, to mark the centenary of Grigson's birth a conference was held at St Edmund Hall, Oxford. In 2007, Pallant House Gallery in

Chichester Chichester () is a cathedral city and civil parish in West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publishing Date:2009. It is the only ci ...

presented the exhibition ''Poets in the Landscape: The Romantic Spirit in British Art''. The exhibition explored "the creative links between poetry, the pastoral vision and British art in the work of Romantic artists of the 18th and 19th centuries, and the Neo-Romantic artists of the mid-20th century", with exhibits of Grigson’s anthology ''The Poet's Eye'', featuring lithographs by

John Craxton John Leith Craxton RA, (3 October 1922 – 17 November 2009) was an English painter. He was sometimes called a neo-Romantic artist but he preferred to be known as a "kind of Arcadian". Biography Career John was the son of musician Harold ...

, and copies of ''New Verse''. In 2017, the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

presented a major exhibition of British landscape paintings from the century following the death of J. M. W. Turner. The exhibition title was "borrowed from the poet and critic Geoffrey Grigson's 1949 collection of essays ''Places of the Mind''", and, in doing so, "acknowledges how every landscape drawing is a construct of the mind and imagination of its creator".

Kim Sloan Dr Kim Sloan is a Canadian art historian. Career Sloan worked for the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1986 where she curated an exhibition on Alexander Cozens from November 1986-January 1987. The exhibition then traveled to the Art Gallery of On ...

, Jessica Feather,

Anna Gruetzner Robins Anna Gruetzner Robins is a Canadian art historian who is a professor at the University of Reading. She is a specialist in the art of Walter Sickert about which she has written three books. She completed her BA at the University of Toronto and her ...

, Sam Smiles and Frances Carey (curators)
"Places of the Mind"
British Museum, 23 February to 28 August 2017.

Works

References

External links