Alan Charles Brownjohn (28 July 1931 – 23 February 2024) was an English poet and novelist. He also worked as a teacher, lecturer, critic and broadcaster.

Life and work

Alan Charles Brownjohn was born in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

on 28 July 1931. He was educated at

Merton College, Oxford Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 126 ...

. He taught in schools between 1957 and 1965. In 1960 he married the writer Shirley Toulson and in 1962 both were elected as Labour councillors in the Wandsworth Metropolitan Borough Council, and Brownjohn stood as the Labour Party candidate for Richmond (Surrey) in the 1964 general election, polling in second place. He and Toulson divorced in 1969. Brownjohn was an inspirational English teacher at Beckenham and Penge Boys Grammar School until 1965. He moved to lecture at Battersea College of Education and South Bank Polytechnic until 1979, when he became a full-time writer. He participated in

Philip Hobsbaum Philip Dennis Hobsbaum (29 June 1932 – 28 June 2005) was a British teacher, poet and critic. Life Hobsbaum was born into a Polish Jewish family in London, and brought up in Bradford, Yorkshire, where he attended Belle Vue Boys' Grammar S ...

's weekly poetry discussion meetings known as

The Group The Group may refer to: Film and television * ''The Group'' (Australian TV series), 1971 situation comedy produced by Cash Harmon Television for ATN7 * ''The Group'' (Canadian TV series), 1968–70 music variety on CBC Television * ''The Group ...

, which also included Peter Porter,

Martin Bell Martin Bell, (born 31 August 1938) is a British UNICEF (UNICEF UK) Ambassador, a former broadcast war Journalist, reporter and former independent politician who became the Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Ta ...

Peter Redgrove Peter William Redgrove (2 January 1932 – 16 June 2003) was an English poet, who also wrote prose, novels and plays with his second wife Penelope Shuttle. Life and career Redgrove was born in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey. He was educated at Ta ...

, George MacBeth and

Edward Lucie-Smith John Edward McKenzie Lucie-Smith (born 27 February 1933), known as Edward Lucie-Smith, is a Jamaican-born English writer, poet, art critic, curator and broadcaster. He has been highly prolific in these fields, writing or editing over a hundred ...

. Brownjohn was a Patron of

Humanists UK Humanists UK, known from 1967 until May 2017 as the British Humanist Association (BHA), is a charitable organisation which promotes secular humanism and aims to represent Irreligion in the United Kingdom, non-religious people in the UK throug ...

. Reviewing Brownjohn's ''Collected Poems'' (

Enitharmon Press Enitharmon Press is an independent British publishing house specialising in artists' books, poetry, limited editions and original prints. The name of the press comes from the poetry of William Blake: Enitharmon was a character who represented s ...

, 2006),

Anthony Thwaite Anthony Simon Thwaite OBE (23 June 1930 – 22 April 2021) was an English poet and critic, widely known as the editor of his friend Philip Larkin's collected poems and letters. Early years and education Born in Chester, England, to Yorkshir ...

wrote in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'': "...he is a social poet in the sense that if people in the future want to know what many lives were like in the second half of the 20th century, they should read Alan Brownjohn - observant, troubled, humane, scrupulous, wry, funny." Alan Brownjohn died on 23 February 2024, at the age of 92.

Bibliography

*''Travellers Alone'' (1954), poems *''The Railings'' (1961), poems *''To Clear the River'' (1964), novel, as John Berrington *''Penguin Modern Poets 14'' (1965), with

Michael Hamburger Michael Peter Leopold Hamburger (22 March 1924 – 7 June 2007) was a noted German-British translator, poet, critic, memoirist and academic. He was known in particular for his translations of Friedrich Hölderlin, Paul Celan, Gottfried Benn and ...

Charles Tomlinson Alfred Charles Tomlinson, CBE (8 January 1927 – 22 August 2015) was an English poet, translator, academic, and illustrator. He was born in Penkhull, and grew up in Basford, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. Life After attending Longton High S ...

*''The Lions' Mouths'' (1967) *''A Day by Indirections'' (1969), broadsheet poem *''First I Say This: A Selection of Poems for Reading Aloud'' (1969), editor *''Sandgrains On A Tray'' (1969) *''Woman Reading Aloud'' (1969) broadsheet poem *''Synopsis'' (1970) *''Brownjohn's Beasts'' (1970) *''Transformation Scene'' (1971) broadside poem *''An Equivalent'' (1971) poem *''New Poems 1970-71. A P.E.N. Anthology of Contemporary Poetry'' (1971), edited with

Seamus Heaney Seamus Justin Heaney (13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish Irish poetry, poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. Among his best-known works is ''Death of a Naturalist'' (1966), his first m ...

and Jon Stallworthy *''Warrior's Career'' (1972) *''She Made of It'' (1974) *''A Song of Good Life'' (1975) *''Philip Larkin'' (1975) *''New Poetry 3, Arts Council anthology'' (1977), edited with

Maureen Duffy Maureen Patricia Duffy (born 21 October 1933) is an English poet, playwright, novelist and non-fiction author. Long an activist covering such issues as gay rights and animal rights, she campaigns especially on behalf of authors. She has receive ...

*''A Night in the Gazebo'' (1980) *''Nineteen Poems'' (1980) *''Collected Poems'' 1952–1983 (1983) *''The Old Flea-Pit'' (1987) *''The Observation Car'' (1990), poems *''The Gregory Anthology 1987–1990'' (1990), editor with K. W. Gransden *''The Way You Tell Them: A Yarn of the Nineties'' (1990), novel *''Inertia Reel'' (1992), broadside poem *''In the Cruel Arcade'' (1994) *''The Long Shadows'' (1997), novel *''Horace by Pierre Corneille'' (1997), translator *''The Cat without E-mail'' (

2001) *''A Funny Old Year'' (2001), novel *''The Men Around Her Bed'' (Enitharmon Press, 2004) *''Windows on the Moon'' (2009), novel *''Ludbrooke and Others'' (Enitharmon Press, 2010) *''A Bottle and Other Poems'' (Enitharmon Press, 2015) *''parrot'' poem

Life and work

Bibliography

References

External links