Teresa Mary ("Tessa") Ransford (8 July 1938 – 2 September 2015) was a poet, activist and the founding director of the

Scottish Poetry Library The Scottish Poetry Library is a public library specialising in Scottish poetry. Since 1999, the library has been based at 5 Crichton's Close, just off the Canongate in Edinburgh's Old Town. History and status The library was founded in 1984 ...

Biography

Teresa Ransford was born in

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

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on 8 July 1938. Her mother was Lady Torfrida Ransford and her father was Sir Alister Ransford, Master of the Mint of Mumbai. The family moved back to the

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in 1944, finally moving to

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in 1948 when her father took up the position of bursar at the

Loretto School Loretto School, founded in 1827, is an independent boarding and day school for boys and girls aged 0 to 18. The campus occupies in Musselburgh, East Lothian, Scotland. History The school was founded by the Reverend Thomas Langhorne in 1827. ...

in Musselburgh. Ransford was educated and boarded at St Leonard’s School in St Andrews. She was not happy and turned to books and poetry for consolation. She went on to study

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and Philosophy at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

. In 1959, she married Iain Kay Stiven, a minister of the

Church of Scotland The Church of Scotland ( sco, The Kirk o Scotland; gd, Eaglais na h-Alba) is the national church in Scotland. The Church of Scotland was principally shaped by John Knox, in the Reformation of 1560, when it split from the Catholic Church ...

and the pair lived in

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until 1968 with their four children. During the 1970s, Ransford started writing and publishing poems and founded the School of Poets in 1981 as a place for poets to gather on a monthly basis to support one another. Ransford produced over fifteen volumes of poetry during her lifetime. The Scottish Poetry Library had 300 books when she started it in 1984. By the time she died, it had over 30,000. She was awarded the Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2000 for services to the Scottish Poetry Library and was President of Scottish

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from 2003 to 2006. Ransford was diagnosed with cancer in 2015 and died in Edinburgh on 2 September that year.

Notable works

*''Light of the Mind (1980)'' *''Shadows from the Greater Hill (1987)'' *''The Nightingale Question (2004)'' *''Not Just Moonshine:'' ''new and selected poems (2008)'' *''Rug of a Thousand Colours (2012)'' *''Don’t Mention This to Anyone (2012)'' *''Made in Edinburgh'' *''A Good Cause''

Reviews

* Mills, Paul (1982), ''The Individual Voice'', which includes a review of ''Light of the Mind'', in Murray, Glen (ed.), ''

Cencrastus ''Cencrastus'' was a magazine devoted to Scottish and international literature, arts and affairs, founded after the Referendum of 1979 by students, mainly of Scottish literature at Edinburgh University, and with support from Cairns Craig, then a ...

'' No. 8, Spring 1982, pp. 45 & 46,

External links

The Scottish Poetry Library website

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ransford, Tessa 1938 births 2015 deaths People educated at St Leonards School 20th-century British poets Alumni of the University of Edinburgh

Biography

Notable works

Reviews

See also

External links

References