Sir Andrew Peter Motion (born 26 October 1952) is an English poet, novelist, and biographer, who was Poet Laureate from 1999 to 2009. During the period of his laureateship, Motion founded the Poetry Archive, an online resource of poems and audio recordings of poets reading their own work. In 2012, he became President of the

Campaign to Protect Rural England Campaign or The Campaign may refer to: Types of campaigns * Campaign, in agriculture, the period during which sugar beet A sugar beet is a plant whose root contains a high concentration of sucrose and that is grown commercially for sugar produ ...

, succeeding

Bill Bryson William McGuire Bryson ( ; born 8 December 1951) is an American-British journalist and author. Bryson has written a number of nonfiction books on topics including travel, the English language, and science. Born in the United States, he has be ...

Early life

Motion was born on 26 October 1952 in London, to (Andrew) Richard Michael Motion (1921-2006),''Essex Clay'', Andrew Motion, Faber and Faber, 2018, dedication page. a brewer at

Ind Coope Allied Breweries was the result of a 1961 merger between Ind Coope (of Burton), Ansells (of Birmingham), and Tetley Walker (of Leeds). In 1978, Allied Breweries merged with the food and catering group J. Lyons and Co to form Allied Lyons. The brew ...

, and (Catherine) Gillian (née Bakewell; 1928–1978). Richard Motion was from a brewing dynasty; his grandfather founded Taylor Walker, but by Richard Motion's time this had been absorbed by Ind Coope. The Motion family were wealthy armigers who lived at Upton House,

Banbury Banbury is an historic market town and civil parish on the River Cherwell in Oxfordshire, South East England. The parish had a population of 54,335 at the 2021 Census. Banbury is a significant commercial and retail centre for the surrounding ...

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire ( ; abbreviated ''Oxon'') is a ceremonial county in South East England. The county is bordered by Northamptonshire and Warwickshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the east, Berkshire to the south, and Wiltshire and Glouceste ...

, and were prominent in the local area; Richard Motion's grandfather Andrew Richard Motion was a Justice of the Peace for

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

, Oxfordshire and

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Ox ...

, who had worked his way up from being a brewery labourer in the East End of London to ownership of his own successful brewery. When his children had grown up and married, he sold the Upton House estate and went to live at Stisted Hall, in Essex. As a child, Motion lived in Kimpton, Hertfordshire, and then in Hatfield Heath. He attended primary school in Much Hadham, before attending

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. They have existed for many centuries, and now extend acr ...

at Maidwell Hall''In the Blood'', Andrew Motion, Faber and Faber, 2006, p. 83. from the age of seven, joined by his younger brother. When Motion was 12 years old, the family moved to Glebe House at Stisted, near Braintree in Essex, where Richard Motion's grandparents had previously lived at Stisted Hall, by that time converted into a home for the elderly. Most of his friends were from the school and so when Motion was in the village, he spent a lot of time on his own. He began to have an interest and affection for the countryside, and he went for walks with a pet dog. Later he went to Radley College, where, in the

sixth form In the education systems of Barbados, England, Jamaica, Northern Ireland, Trinidad and Tobago, Wales, and some other Commonwealth countries, sixth form represents the final two years of secondary education, ages 16 to 18. Pupils typically prepa ...

, he encountered Peter Way, an inspiring English teacher who introduced him to poetry – first

Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Literary realism, Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry ...

, then Philip Larkin, W. H. Auden,

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 ...

Ted Hughes Edward James Hughes (17 August 1930 – 28 October 1998) was an English poet, translator, and children's writer. Critics frequently rank him as one of the best poets of his generation and one of the twentieth century's greatest writers. He wa ...

Wordsworth William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication '' Lyrical Ballads'' (1798). Wordsworth's ...

and Keats."Profile: Andrew Motion, the poet laureate"
''The Sunday Times''. 14 September 2008. When Motion was 17 years old, his mother had a horse-riding accident and suffered a serious head injury requiring a lifesaving

neurosurgery Neurosurgery or neurological surgery, known in common parlance as brain surgery, is the specialty (medicine), medical specialty that focuses on the surgical treatment or rehabilitation of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system ...

operation. She regained some speech, but she was severely paralysed and remained in and out of coma for nine years. She died in 1978 and her husband died of cancer in 2006. Motion has said that he wrote to keep his memory of his mother alive.Andrew Motion Official website
Accessed 12 July 2010 When Motion was about 18 years old, he moved away from the village to study English at

University College, Oxford University College, formally The Master and Fellows of the College of the Great Hall of the University commonly called University College in the University of Oxford and colloquially referred to as "Univ", is a Colleges of the University of Oxf ...

; however, since then he has remained in contact with the village to visit the church graveyard, where his parents are buried, and also to see his brother, who lives nearby. At university he studied at weekly sessions with W. H. Auden, whom he greatly admired. Motion won the university's Newdigate Prize and graduated with a first-class honours degree. This was followed by an MLitt on the poetry of Edward Thomas.

Career

Between 1976 and 1980, Motion taught English at the

University of Hull The University of Hull is a public research university in Kingston upon Hull, a city in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It was founded in 1927 as University College Hull. The main university campus is located in Hull and is home to the Hu ...

and while there, at the age of 24, he had his first volume of poetry published. At Hull, he met the university librarian, poet Philip Larkin. Motion was later appointed as one of Larkin's literary executors, which would privilege Motion's role as his biographer following Larkin's death in 1985. In ''Philip Larkin: A Writer's Life'', Motion says that at no time during their nine-year friendship did they discuss writing his biography and it was Larkin's longtime companion Monica Jones who requested it. Motion reports how, as executor, he rescued many of Larkin's papers from imminent destruction following his friend's death. His 1993 biography of Larkin, which won the Whitbread Prize for Biography, was responsible for bringing about a substantial revision of Larkin's reputation. Motion was editorial director and poetry editor at

Chatto & Windus Chatto & Windus is an imprint of Penguin Random House that was formerly an independent book publishing company founded in London in 1855 by John Camden Hotten. Following Hotten's death, the firm would reorganize under the names of his busines ...

(1983–89); he edited the

Poetry Society The Poetry Society is a membership organisation, open to all, whose stated aim is "to promote the study, use and enjoyment of poetry". The society was founded in London in February 1909 as the Poetry Recital Society, becoming the Poetry Society ...

's ''

Poetry Review ''The Poetry Review'' is the magazine of The Poetry Society, edited by the poet Wayne Holloway-Smith. Founded in 1912, shortly after the establishment of the Society, previous editors have included poets Muriel Spark, Adrian Henri, Andrew Mo ...

'' from 1980 to 1982 and succeeded

Malcolm Bradbury Sir Malcolm Stanley Bradbury, (7 September 1932 – 27 November 2000) was an English author and academic. Life Bradbury was born in Sheffield, the son of a railwayman. His family moved to London in 1935, but returned to Sheffield in 1941 wit ...

as professor of creative writing at the

University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a Public university, public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus university, campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and twenty-six schools of ...

. Motion is now on the faculty at the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars.

Laureateship

Motion was appointed Poet Laureate on 1 May 1999, following the death of

, the previous incumbent. The

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...

–winning Northern Irish poet and translator

had ruled himself out for the post. Breaking with the tradition of the laureate retaining the post for life, Motion stipulated that he would stay for only ten years. The yearly stipend of £200 was increased to £5,000 and he received the customary butt of

sack A sack usually refers to a rectangular-shaped bag. Sack may also refer to: Bags * Flour sack * Gunny sack * Hacky sack, sport * Money sack * Paper sack * Sleeping bag * Stuff sack * Knapsack Other uses * Bed, a slang term * Sack (band), ...

. He wanted to write "poems about things in the news, and commissions from people or organisations involved with ordinary life", rather than be seen as a "courtier". So, he wrote "for the TUC about liberty, about homelessness for

the Salvation Army The Salvation Army (TSA) is a Protestantism, Protestant Christian church and an international charitable organisation headquartered in London, England. It is aligned with the Wesleyan-Holiness movement. The organisation reports a worldwide m ...

, about bullying for ChildLine, about the foot and mouth outbreak for the ''Today'' programme, about the Paddington rail disaster, the

11 September attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

and Harry Patch for the BBC, and more recently about

shell shock Shell shock is a term that originated during World War I to describe symptoms similar to those of combat stress reaction and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which many soldiers suffered during the war. Before PTSD was officially recogni ...

for the charity Combat Stress, and climate change for the song cycle he finished for Cambridge University with

Peter Maxwell Davies Sir Peter Maxwell Davies (8 September 1934 – 14 March 2016) was an English composer and conductor, who in 2004 was made Master of the Queen's Music. As a student at both the University of Manchester and the Royal Manchester College of Music ...

." On 14 March 2002, as part of the "Re-weaving Rainbows" event of

National Science Week Science Week (sometimes National Science Week) refers to series of science-related events for the general public which are held in a specific countries during a designated week of the year. The aim of such science weeks is to engage and inspire pe ...

2002, Motion unveiled a blue plaque on the front wall of 28 St Thomas Street,

Southwark Southwark ( ) is a district of Central London situated on the south bank of the River Thames, forming the north-western part of the wider modern London Borough of Southwark. The district, which is the oldest part of South London, developed ...

, to commemorate the sharing of lodgings there by

John Keats John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets, along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tub ...

and Henry Stephens while they were medical students at Guy's and

St Thomas' Hospital St Thomas' Hospital is a large NHS teaching hospital in Central London, England. Administratively part of the Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, together with Guy's Hospital, Evelina London Children's Hospital, Royal Brompton Hospita ...

in 1815–16. In 2003, Motion wrote ''Regime change'', a poem in protest at the Invasion of Iraq from the point of view of Death walking the streets during the conflict, and in 2005, "Spring Wedding" in honour of the wedding of the

Prince of Wales Prince of Wales (, ; ) is a title traditionally given to the male heir apparent to the History of the English monarchy, English, and later, the British throne. The title originated with the Welsh rulers of Kingdom of Gwynedd, Gwynedd who, from ...

to Camilla Parker Bowles. Commissioned to write in the honour of 109-year-old Harry Patch, the last surviving " Tommy" to have fought in the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, Motion composed a five-part poem, read and received by Patch at the Bishop's Palace in Wells in 2008. As laureate, he also founded the Poetry Archive, an on-line library of historic and contemporary recordings of poets reciting their own work. Motion remarked that he found some of the duties attendant to the post of poet laureate difficult and onerous and that the appointment had been "very, very damaging to iswork". The appointment of Motion met with criticism from some quarters. As he prepared to stand down from the job, Motion published an article 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 ...

'' that concluded: "To have had 10 years working as laureate has been remarkable. Sometimes it's been remarkably difficult, the laureate has to take a lot of flak, one way or another. More often it has been remarkably fulfilling. I'm glad I did it, and I'm glad I'm giving it up – especially since I mean to continue working for poetry."Motion, Andrew (21 March 2009)
"Yet once more, O ye laurels"
''The Guardian'', Access date 2009-03-21. Motion spent his last day as Poet Laureate holding a creative writing class at his alma mater, Radley College, before giving a poetry reading and thanking Peter Way, the man who taught him English at Radley, for making him who he was.

Carol Ann Duffy Dame Carol Ann Duffy (born 23 December 1955) is a Scottish poet and playwright. She is a professor of contemporary poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University, and was appointed Poet Laureate in May 2009, and her term expired in 2019. She wa ...

succeeded him as Poet Laureate on 1 May 2009.

Post-laureateship

Motion is chairman of the Arts Council of England's literature panel (appointed 1996) and is also a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 800 Fellows, elect ...

. In 2003, he became professor of creative writing at

Royal Holloway Royal Holloway, University of London (RH), formally incorporated as Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, is a public university, public research university and a constituent college, member institution of the federal University of London. It ...

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

. Since July 2009, Motion has been Chairman of the

Museums, Libraries and Archives Council The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) was until May 2012 a non-departmental public body and a registered charity in England with a remit to promote improvement and innovation in the area of museums, Library, libraries, and archives. ...

(MLA) appointed by the

Department for Culture, Media and Sport The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It holds the responsibility for Culture of the United Kingdom, culture a ...

. He is also a vice-president of the Friends of the British Library, a charity which provides funding support to the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

. He was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

in the 2009 Queen's Birthday Honours list. He has been a member of

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...

's Blue Plaques Panel since 2008. Motion was selected as jury chair for the

Man Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a prestigious literary award conferred each year for the best single work of sustained fiction written in the English language, wh ...

2010 and in March 2010, he announced that he was working with publishers

Jonathan Cape Jonathan Cape is a British publishing firm headquartered in London and founded in 1921 by Herbert Jonathan Cape, who was head of the firm until his death. Cape and his business partner Wren Howard (1893–1968) set up the publishing house in ...

on a sequel to

Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll ...

's ''

Treasure Island ''Treasure Island'' (originally titled ''The Sea Cook: A Story for Boys''Hammond, J. R. 1984. "Treasure Island." In ''A Robert Louis Stevenson Companion'', Palgrave Macmillan Literary Companions. London: Palgrave Macmillan. .) is an adventure a ...

''. Entitled ''Silver'', the story is set a generation on from the original book and was published in March 2012. In July 2010, Motion returned to Kingston-upon-Hull for the annual ''Humber Mouth'' literature festival and taking part in the Larkin 25 festival commemorating the 25th anniversary of Philip Larkin's death. In his capacity as Larkin's biographer and as a former lecturer in English at the

, Motion named an East Yorkshire Motor Services bus ''Philip Larkin''. Motion's debut play '' Incoming'', about the war in Afghanistan, premièred at the High Tides Festival in

Halesworth Halesworth is a market town, civil parish and Wards and electoral divisions of the United Kingdom, electoral ward in north-eastern Suffolk, England. The population stood at 4,726 in the 2011 Census. It lies south-west of Lowestoft, on a tribut ...

, Suffolk, in May 2011. Motion also featured in '' Jamie's Dream School'' in 2011 as the poetry teacher. In June 2012, he became the President of the

. In March 2014, he was elected an Honorary Fellow at Homerton College, Cambridge. Motion won the 2015

Ted Hughes Award The Ted Hughes Award was an annual literary prize given to a living UK poet for new work in poetry. It was awarded each spring in recognition of a work from the previous year. It was a project which ran alongside Carol Ann Duffy's tenure as Poet ...

for new work in poetry for the radio programme ''Coming Home''. The production featured poetry by Motion based on recordings he made of British soldiers returning from the wars in

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

and

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

. In 2017, Motion moved to

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the List of United States ...

, to take up a post at the Writing Seminars as a Homewood Professor of the Arts at

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

Work

Motion has said of himself: "My wish to write a poem is inseparable from my wish to explain something to myself." His work combines lyrical and narrative aspects in a "postmodern-romantic sensibility". Motion says that he aims to write in clear language without tricks. ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' describes the stalwart poet as the "charming and tireless defender of the art form". Motion has won the Arvon Prize, the

John Llewellyn Rhys Prize The John Llewellyn Rhys Prize was a literary prize awarded annually for the best work of literature (fiction, non-fiction, poetry, or drama) by an author from the Commonwealth aged 35 or under, written in English and published in the United Kin ...

, Eric Gregory Award, Whitbread Prize for Biography and the Dylan Thomas Prize. Motion took part in the Bush Theatre's 2011 project '' Sixty-Six Books'', writing and performing a piece based upon a book of the ''

King James Bible The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version (AV), is an Early Modern English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and published in 1611, by ...

''.

Personal life

Motion's marriage to Joanna Powell ended in 1983. He was married to Jan Dalley from 1985 to 2009, divorcing after a seven-year separation. They had one son born in 1986 and twins, a son and a daughter, born in 1988. In 2010, he married Kyeong-Soo Kim. He currently lives part of the year in

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

Selected honours and awards

* 1975: won the Newdigate prize for Oxford undergraduate poetry * 1976: Eric Gregory Award * 1981: wins Arvon Foundation's International Poetry Competition with ''The Letter'' * 1984:

for ''Dangerous Play: Poems 1974–1984'' * 1987: Somerset Maugham Award for ''The Lamberts'' * 1987: Dylan Thomas Prize for ''Natural Causes'' * 1999: appointed Poet Laureate for ten years * 1994: ''Philip Larkin: A Writer’s Life'', Whitbread Prize for Biography * 2009:

Knight Bachelor The title of Knight Bachelor is the basic rank granted to a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not inducted as a member of one of the organised Order of chivalry, orders of chivalry; it is a part of the Orders, decorations, and medals ...

* 2014: Wilfred Owen Poetry Award

Bibliography

Poetry

;Poems * 1972: ''Goodnestone: A Sequence'' (in ''Workshop Poets No. 7''), Workshop Press * 1976: ''Inland'', Cygnet Press ;Collections * 1978: ''The Pleasure Steamers'', Carcanet * 1981: ''Independence'', Salamander Press * 1983: ''Secret Narratives'', Salamander Press * 1984: ''Dangerous Play: Poems 1974–1984'', Salamander Press / Penguin * 1987: ''Natural Causes'', Chatto & Windus * 1988: ''Two Poems'', Words Ltd * 1991: ''Love in a Life'', Faber and Faber * 1994: ''The Price of Everything'', Faber and Faber * 1997: ''Salt Water'', Faber and Faber * 1998: ''Selected Poems 1976–1997'', Faber and Faber * 2001: ''A Long Story'', The Old School Press * 2002: ''Public Property'', Faber and Faber * 2009: ''The Cinder Path'', Faber and Faber * 2012: ''The Customs House'', Faber and Faber * 2015: ''Peace Talks'', Faber and Faber * 2015: ''Coming Home'', Fine Press Poetry * 2017: ''Coming in to Land: Selected Poems, 1975–2015'', Ecco Press * 2018: ''Essex Clay'', Faber and Faber * 2020: ''Randomly Moving Particles'', Faber and Faber ;List of poems

Criticism

* 1980: ''The Poetry of Edward Thomas''. Routledge & Kegan Paul * 1982: '' Philip Larkin''. (Contemporary Writers series) Methuen * 1986: '' Elizabeth Bishop. (Chatterton Lectures on an English Poet)'' * 1998: ''Sarah Raphael: Strip!''. Marlborough Fine Art (London) * 2008: ''Ways of Life: On Places, Painters and Poets''. Faber and Faber

Biography

* 1986: ''The Lamberts: George, Constant and Kit''. Chatto & Windus * 1993: '' Philip Larkin: A Writer's Life''. Faber and Faber * 1997: '' Keats: A Biography''. Faber and Faber

Memoirs

* 2006: ''In the Blood: A Memoir of my Childhood''. Faber and Faber

Fiction

* 1989: ''The Pale Companion''. Penguin * 1991: ''Famous for the Creatures''. Viking * 2003: ''The Invention of Dr Cake''. Faber and Faber * 2000: ''Wainewright the Poisoner: The Confessions of Thomas Griffiths Wainewright'' ( biographical novel) * 2012: ''

Silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

''. Jonathan Cape * 2015: ''The New World''. Crown

Edited works, introductions, and forewords

* 1981: ''Selected Poems: William Barnes''. Penguin Classics * 1982: ''The Penguin Book of Contemporary British Poetry'' with Blake Morrison. Penguin * 1994: ''

: Selected Poems''. Dent * 1993: ''New Writing 2'' (With

). Minerva in association with the British Council * 1994: ''New Writing 3'' (With Candice Rodd). Minerva in association with the British Council * 1997: ''Penguin Modern Poets: Volume 11'' with Michael Donaghy and Hugo Williams. Penguin * 1998: ''Take 20: New Writing''. University of East Anglia * 1999: ''Verses of the Poets Laureate: From

John Dryden John Dryden (; – ) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England's first Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, Poet Laureate. He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration (En ...

to Andrew Motion''. With Hilary Laurie. Orion. * 1999: ''Babel: New Writing by the University of East Anglia's MA Writers''. University of East Anglia. * 2001: ''Firsthand: The New Anthology of Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia''. University of East Anglia * 2002: ''Paper Scissors Stone: New Writing from the MA in Creative Writing at UEA''. University of East Anglia. * 2001: ''The Creative Writing Coursebook: Forty Authors Share Advice and Exercises for Fiction & Poetry''. With Julia Bell. Macmillan * 2000: ''

: Poems Selected by Andrew Motion''. Faber and Faber * 2001: ''Here to Eternity: An Anthology of Poetry''. Faber and Faber * 2002: '' The Mays Literary Anthology''; Guest editor. Varsity Publications * 2003: ''101 Poems Against War''. Faber and Faber (Afterword) * 2003: ''First World War Poems''. Faber and Faber * 2006: ''Collins Rhyming Dictionary''. Collins * 2007: ''Bedford Square 2: New Writing from the Royal Holloway Creative Writing Programme''. John Murray Ltd.

References

External links

Profile and poems written and audio
at the Poetry Archive
Profile at Poets.org

National Portrait Gallery portraits
* * John Crace
Profile , "Andrew Motion: Mr Speaker"
''The Guardian'', 13 December 2005. * Richard Lea and Christian Bennett
"Andrew Motion on war poetry"
''The Guardian'', 27 July 2009. Interview and reading (Video, 8 mins).
BBC
profile

"Andrew Motion on being Poet Laureate" (Video, 4 mins)
BBC interview
"Andrew Motion's Hindu Wood Carving" (Video 4 mins)

from ''Keats,'' about John Keats, Fanny Brawne, and his poem for her, "Bright Star" * , Andrew Motion's Romanes Lecture (2011) at Oxford University (video)
Papers of Andrew Motion
at the British Library {{DEFAULTSORT:Motion, Andrew 1952 births Living people 20th-century English novelists 20th-century English poets 20th-century English biographers 20th-century English male writers 21st-century English novelists 21st-century English poets 21st-century English biographers 21st-century English male writers Academics of Royal Holloway, University of London Academics of the University of East Anglia Academics of the University of Hull Alumni of University College, Oxford British poets laureate English book editors Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Knights Bachelor People educated at Radley College People from Braintree, Essex The New York Review of Books people