Roy Broadbent Fuller CBE (11 February 1912 – 27 September 1991) was an English writer, known mostly as a

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 w ...

. He was born at Failsworth, Lancashire to lower-middle-class parents Leopold Charles Fuller and his wife Nellie (1888–1949; née Broadbent), whose father was clerk to a workhouse master. His father, born at

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandswor ...

in 1884, was the illegitimate son of Minnie Augusta Fuller (born 1863), daughter of a

Soham Soham ( ) is a town and civil parish in the district of East Cambridgeshire, in Cambridgeshire, England, just off the A142 between Ely and Newmarket. Its population was 10,860 at the 2011 census. History Archaeology The region between De ...

police constable, Richard Fuller. Orphaned and subsequently raised with his elder sister, Minnie (later Matron of the

Manchester Royal Infirmary Manchester Royal Infirmary (MRI) is a large NHS teaching hospital in Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester, England. Founded by Charles White in 1752 as part of the voluntary hospital movement of the 18th century, it is now a major regional and natio ...

) at

Caithness Caithness ( gd, Gallaibh ; sco, Caitnes; non, Katanes) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. Caithness has a land boundary with the historic county of Sutherland to the west and is otherwise bounded ...

, Leopold worked his way up to the position of works manager (also later becoming a director) of a rubber-proofing mill at Hollinwood, Greater Manchester, dying in 1920. Fuller was subsequently raised in

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre rivers, and is ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancas ...

, and educated at Blackpool High School.

Margaret Drabble Dame Margaret Drabble, Lady Holroyd, (born 5 June 1939) is an English biographer, novelist and short story writer. Drabble's books include '' The Millstone'' (1965), which won the following year's John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize, and '' Je ...

, ''The Oxford Companion to English Literature'', OUP, Oxford, 1985, p. 373. Fuller was

articled Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...

to a solicitor in 1928, in which year his first poem was published in the ''

Sunday Referee The ''Sunday Referee'' was a Sunday newspaper in the United Kingdom, founded in 1877 as ''The Referee'', primarily covering sports news. In the 1930s, considerable money was invested in an attempt to compete with the leading Sunday newspapers, an ...

''. After qualifying as a

solicitor A solicitor is a legal practitioner who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally-defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and ...

in 1933, he worked for The Woolwich Equitable Building Society, ending his career as head of the legal department. He served in the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Fr ...

from 1941 to 1946. ''Poems'' (1939) was his first book of poetry. He also began to write fiction, including crime novels, in the 1950s, and wrote several volumes of

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobiog ...

s. As a poet he became identified, on stylistic grounds, with The Movement. He was

Professor of Poetry The Professor of Poetry is an academic appointment at the University of Oxford. The chair was created in 1708 by an endowment from the estate of Henry Birkhead. The professorship carries an obligation to lecture, but is in effect a part-time p ...

Oxford University 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 ...

from 1968 to 1973. From 1972 to 1979 he was a member of the Board of Governors of the BBC. The poet John Fuller is his son. In 1966

Anthony Powell Anthony Dymoke Powell ( ; 21 December 1905 – 28 March 2000) was an English novelist best known for his 12-volume work ''A Dance to the Music of Time'', published between 1951 and 1975. It is on the list of longest novels in English. Powell' ...

dedicated to Fuller his novel '' The Soldier's Art'', the eighth volume of his masterwork, ''

A Dance to the Music of Time ''A Dance to the Music of Time'' is a 12-volume ''roman-fleuve'' by English writer Anthony Powell, published between 1951 and 1975 to critical acclaim. The story is an often comic examination of movements and manners, power and passivity in Eng ...

''. He received a

C.B.E. The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

and

Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry The Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry is awarded for a book of verse published by someone in any of the Commonwealth realms. Originally the award was open only to British subjects living in the United Kingdom, but in 1985 the scope was extended to in ...

in 1970 and the

Cholmondeley Award The Cholmondeley Awards () are annual awards for poetry given by the Society of Authors in the United Kingdom. Awards honour distinguished poets, from a fund endowed by the Dowager Marchioness of Cholmondeley in 1966. Since 1991 the award has be ...

from the

Society of Authors The Society of Authors (SoA) is a United Kingdom trade union for professional writers, illustrators and literary translators, founded in 1884 to protect the rights and further the interests of authors. , it represents over 12,000 members and ass ...

in 1980.

Books

*''Poems'' (1939) *''The Middle of a War'' (1942) *''A Lost Season'' (1944) *''Savage Gold'' (1946) *''With My Little Eye'' (1948) *''Epitaphs and Occasions'' (1949) *''The Second Curtain'' (1953) *''Counterparts'' (1954) *''Image of a Society'' (1956) *''Brutus’s Orchard'' (1957) *''Fantasy and Fugue'' (1956) his was republished as ''Murder in Mind''.*''Byron for Today'' (1958) *''The Ruined Boys'' (1959) *''Buff'' (1965) *''My Child, My Sister'' (1965) *''New Poems'' (1968) *''Off Course: Poems'' (1969) *''The Carnal island'' (1970) *''Seen Grandpa Lately?'' (1972) *''Song Cycle from a Record Sleeve'' (1972) *''Tiny Tears'' (1973) *''Owls and Artificers: Oxford lectures on poetry'' (1974) *''Professors and Gods: Last Oxford Lectures on Poetry'' (1975) *''From the Joke Shop'' (1975) *''The Joke Shop Annexe'' (1975) *''An Ill-Governed Coast'': Poems (1976) *''Poor Roy'' (1977) *''The Reign of Sparrows'' (1980) *''Souvenirs'' (1980) *''Fellow Mortals: An anthology of animal verse'' (1981) *''More About Tompkins, and other light verse'' (1981) *''House and Shop'' (1982) *''The Individual and his Times: A selection of the poetry of Roy Fuller'' (1982) with V. J. Lee *''Vamp Till Ready: Further memoirs'' (1982) *''Upright Downfall'' (1983) with Barbara Giles and Adrian Rumble *''As from the Thirties'' (1983) *''Home and Dry: Memoirs III'' (1984) *''Mianserin Sonnets'' (1984) *''Subsequent to Summer'' (1985) *''Twelfth Night: A personal view'' (1985) *''New and Collected Poems, 1934-84'' (1985) *''Outside the Canon'' (1986) *''Murder in Mind'' (1986) *''Lessons of the Summer'' (1987) *''Consolations'' (1987) *''Available for Dreams'' (1989) *''Stares'' (1990) *''Spanner and Pen: Post-war memoirs'' (1991)

References

External links

* Archival Material at * Some of his poems can be found at https://allpoetry.com/Roy-Fuller * An account of his time in

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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

and his wartime poetry is at http://www.warpoets.org/poets/roy-fuller-1912-1991/ * A review of his Selected Poems, with an outline of his life and an appraisal of his poetry is at https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/mar/02/selected-poems-roy-fuller-review
Finding aid to Roy Fuller manuscripts at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fuller, Roy 1912 births 1991 deaths People from Blackpool People from Failsworth Royal Navy personnel of World War II Hungarian–English translators Oxford Professors of Poetry 20th-century translators World War II poets 20th-century English poets 20th-century English novelists English crime fiction writers Commanders of the Order of the British Empire