Glyn Maxwell (born 1962) is a British poet, playwright, novelist,

librettist A libretto (From the Italian word , ) is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major ...

, and lecturer.

Early life

Of primarily Welsh heritage — his mother Buddug-Mair Powell (b. 1928) acted in the original stage show of

Dylan Thomas Dylan Marlais Thomas (27 October 1914 – 9 November 1953) was a Welsh poet and writer, whose works include the poems " Do not go gentle into that good night" and " And death shall have no dominion", as well as the "play for voices" ''Un ...

's ''

Under Milk Wood ''Under Milk Wood'' is a 1954 radio drama by Welsh people, Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. The BBC commissioned the play, which was later adapted for the stage. The first public reading was in New York City in 1953. A Under Milk Wood (1972 film), f ...

'' in the West End and on

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street ** Broadway Theatre (53rd Stre ...

in 1956 — Maxwell was born and raised in

Welwyn Garden City Welwyn Garden City ( ) is a town in Hertfordshire, England, north of London. It was the second Garden city movement, garden city in England (founded 1920) and one of the first New towns in the United Kingdom, new towns (designated 1948). It is ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...

. His father James Maxwell (1928-2016) was an industrial chemist. Maxwell has two brothers, Alun (b. 1960), and David (b. 1964). His cousin Kerry Lee Powell is a noted Canadian writer. He studied English at

Worcester College Worcester College ( ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. The college was founded in 1714 by the benefaction of Sir Thomas Cookes, 2nd Baronet (1648–1701) of Norgrove, Worcestershire, whose coat of arms was ad ...

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

. He began an MLitt there but dropped out. In 1987 he moved to America to study poetry and drama with

Derek Walcott Sir Derek Alton Walcott OM (23 January 1930 – 17 March 2017) was a Saint Lucian poet and playwright. He received the 1992 Nobel Prize in Literature. His works include the Homeric epic poem '' Omeros'' (1990), which many critics view "as ...

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

. He returned to the UK and began publishing poetry in the 1990s. After his marriage and the birth of his daughter Alfie in 1997, he moved with his family to the USA, living and teaching at first in Amherst, Massachusetts, and then in New York City. He returned to the UK in 2006. In the years 1991, 1993 and 1995, Maxwell staged performances of his plays in his parents' garden in

. These were featured in the national press and on radio.

Poetry

His three earliest collections of poetry, ''Tale Of The Mayor's Son'' (1990), ''Out of the Rain'' (1992), ''Rest For The Wicked'' (1995) are collected as ''The Boys at Twilight: Poems 1990-1995'' (2000). ''The Nerve'' won the

Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize The Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize is a British literary prize established in 1963 in tribute to Geoffrey Faber, founder and first Chairman of the publisher Faber & Faber. It recognises a single volume of poetry or fiction by a United Kingdom, Iri ...

in 2004. All his other collections of poems – ''The Breakage'', ''Hide Now'' and ''Pluto'' – have been shortlisted for either the T. S. Eliot Prize,

Forward Prize The Forward Prizes for Poetry are major British awards for poetry, presented annually at a public ceremony in London. They were founded in 1992 by William Sieghart with the aim of celebrating excellence in poetry and increasing its audience. The ...

, or Costa Book Prize. He was awarded 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. Membership of the society is open to "anyon ...

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 bee ...

for his poetry in 2014. In 1994 he was named one of the

New Generation poets The New Generation Poets is a group of 1994 British poets whose work was featured in a month-long nationwide festival, many of the writers going on to considerable popular success. The 20 poets were chosen by a panel of judges comprising Melvyn Brag ...

and he received the E. M. Forster Award in 1997. His most recent collections are ''One Thousand Nights and Counting: Selected Poems'' and ''Pluto''. His work appears in several anthologies of the best of 20th century poetry. In 1999 Maxwell left

Faber & Faber Faber and Faber Limited, commonly known as Faber & Faber or simply 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, C. S. Lewis, Margaret S ...

as a result of editorial disagreement over his poem ''Time's Fool,'' and his work has since been published by

Picador A ''picador'' (; pl. ''picadores'') is one of the pair of horse-mounted bullfighters in a Spanish-style bullfight that jab the bull with a lance. They perform in the ''tercio de varas'', which is the first of the three stages in a stylized bull ...

in the UK. In the US he has been published by

Houghton Mifflin The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often vocalize it as ...

and

Farrar Straus Giroux Farrar, Straus and Giroux (FSG) is an American book publishing company, founded in 1946 by Roger Williams Straus Jr. and John C. Farrar. FSG is known for publishing literary books, and its authors have won numerous awards, including Pulitzer ...

. In 2014 he edited a collected edition of the poems of

, ''The Poetry of Derek Walcott 1948–2013''. His book of poetry, ''How the Hell Are You'' was published by Picador in 2020.

Film

In 2018, the rights to Maxwell's epic poem ''Time's Fool'' (1999) were optioned by the film director Paul King and the screenwriter Jon Croker, and subsequently bought by

Fox Searchlight Searchlight Pictures, Inc., formerly known as Fox Searchlight Pictures, is an American arthouse film production and distribution company, which since 2019 is owned by Walt Disney Studios, a division of the Disney Entertainment segment of the ...

for development as a feature film, with King and Croker as writers, and David Heyman as producer. Maxwell co-wrote the screenplay for ''The Beast In The Jungle'', a dance-film based on the

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...

novella, with the film's director Clara Van Gool. The film premiered at the

Rotterdam Film Festival International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) is an annual film festival held at the end of January in various locations in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, focused on independent and experimental films. The inaugural festival took place in June 1972, ...

in February 2019. It will also feature at the film festivals of Goteborg, San Francisco, New York and Shanghai.

Prose

Maxwell's critical guidebook ''On Poetry'' ( Oberon Books, 2012) was described by Adam Newey 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 ...

'' as 'the best book about poetry I've ever read' and by Hugo Williams in ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British political and cultural news magazine. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving magazine in the world. ''The Spectator'' is politically conservative, and its principal subject a ...

'' as 'a modern classic'. A stand-alone sequel, titled ''Drinks With Dead Poets: The Autumn Term'' and set in a mysterious village, was published by Oberon in October 2016. In this 'brilliantly unclassifiable' work, several deceased poets appear as characters, their speech taken ''verbatim'' from their writings. A sequel, ''Last Night In England'', is in process. His first novel, ''Blue Burneau'' (1994), was shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Prize and the book ''Moon Country'', published in 1996, describes a visit to

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

with

Simon Armitage Simon Robert Armitage (born 26 May 1963) is an English poet, playwright, musician and novelist. He was appointed Poet Laureate on 10 May 2019. He is professor of poetry at the University of Leeds. He has published over 20 collections of poetr ...

. His second novel, ''The Girl Who Was Going To Die,'' was published in 2008 by Cape in the UK and by Kunstmann in Germany.

Drama

Plays include ''After Troy'' (dir. Alex Clifton), a retelling of

Euripides Euripides () was a Greek tragedy, tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to ...

' '' Women of Troy'' and ''Hecabe'' (

Oxford Playhouse The Oxford Playhouse is a theatre designed by Edward Maufe and F. G. M. Chancellor. It is situated in Beaumont Street, Oxford, opposite the Ashmolean Museum. History The Playhouse was founded as ''The Red Barn'' at 12 Woodstock Road (Oxford), W ...

/ Shaw Theatre London), ''Lily Jones's Birthday'' a satyr-play based on

Aristophanes Aristophanes (; ; ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek Ancient Greek comedy, comic playwright from Classical Athens, Athens. He wrote in total forty plays, of which eleven survive virtually complete today. The majority of his surviving play ...

' ''

Lysistrata ''Lysistrata'' ( or ; Attic Greek: , ''Lysistrátē'', ) is an ancient Greek comedy by Aristophanes, originally performed in classical Athens in 411 BC. It is a comic account of a woman's mission to end the Peloponnesian War between Greek city ...

'', which premiered at

RADA The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, also known by its abbreviation RADA (), is a drama school in London, England, which provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in Bloomsbury, Central Lond ...

in 2009; ''Liberty'', about the French Revolution, which premiered at

Shakespeare's Globe Shakespeare's Globe is a reconstruction of the Globe Theatre, an Elizabethan playhouse first built in 1599 for which William Shakespeare wrote his plays. Like the original, it is located on the south bank of the River Thames, in Southwark, Lon ...

in the 2008 season (dir. Guy Retallack) and toured the UK. In New York, ''Agamemnon Home'' (dir. Amy Wagner) received its world premiere in April 2012. Several of Maxwell's plays and adaptations have been staged at Chester's Grosvenor Park Open-Air Theatre, or in the city's new Storyhouse Theatre, which opened in 2017 under the Artistic Directorship of Alex Clifton: these were ''Merlin and the Woods of Time'' (2011, dir. Alex Clifton), ''Masters Are You Mad?'' (2012, dir. Robin Norton-Hale), ''Cyrano De Bergerac'' (2013, dir. Lucy Pitman-Wallace), ''Wind in the Willows'' (2015, dir. Alex Clifton), ''The Beggar's Opera'', a new version of the John Gay classic, (2017, dir. Alex Clifton), ''Alice in Wonderland'' (2017, dir. Derek Bond) and ''The Secret Seven'' (2017, dir. Alex Clifton). ''Wind in the Willows'' and ''The Secret Seven'' were both nominated as 'Best Play For Young People' at the British Theatre Awards. His eighth play for Chester, ''Jekyll and Hyde'', played in autumn 2019 at Storyhouse. His version of ''Cyrano de Bergerac'' was also staged at

Southwark Playhouse Southwark Playhouse is a theatre in London with two venues, both located between Borough and Elephant and Castle tube stations. History The Southwark Playhouse Theatre Company was founded in 1993 by Juliet Alderdice and Tom Wilson. They ident ...

in 2016 (dir. Russell Bolam) starring Kathryn Hunter. Others recent plays include ''Babette's Feast'' (2017, dir. Bill Buckhurst), starring

Sheila Atim Sheila Atim (; born 1991) is a Ugandan-British actress, singer, composer, and playwright. She made her professional acting debut in 2014 at Shakespeare's Globe in '' The Lightning Child'', a musical written by her acting teacher Ché Walker. ...

, Diana Quick and Joseph Marcell. ''The Lifeblood'', concerning the last days of

Mary, Queen of Scots Mary, Queen of Scots (8 December 1542 – 8 February 1587), also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, was List of Scottish monarchs, Queen of Scotland from 14 December 1542 until her forced abdication in 1567. The only surviving legit ...

, was British Theatre Guide's 'Play of the

Fringe Fringe may refer to: Arts and music * "The Fringe", or Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world's largest arts festival * Adelaide Fringe, the world's second-largest annual arts festival * Fringe theatre, a name for alternative theatre * Purple fri ...

' at Edinburgh in 2004, and was directed by Guy Retallack with Sue Scott Davison as Mary. ''The Lifeblood'' was first performed at the Hen and Chickens Theatre in 2001 with Felicity Wren as Mary.
British Theatre Guide. Retrieved 2009-11-08 His play ''Mimi and The Stalker'' was one of six projects awarded funding by the

UK Film Council The UK Film Council (UKFC) was a non-departmental public body set up in 2000 to develop and promote the film industry in the UK. It was constituted as a private company limited by guarantee, owned by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and ...

in the spring 2009 quarter, for development as a screenplay under the name ''Witchgrass.'' Other plays include ''Wolfpit'', about two green children said to have appeared in Suffolk in the 12th century (Edinburgh 1996; New York 2006), ''The Forever Waltz'', a reworking of the

Orpheus In Greek mythology, Orpheus (; , classical pronunciation: ) was a Thracians, Thracian bard, legendary musician and prophet. He was also a renowned Ancient Greek poetry, poet and, according to legend, travelled with Jason and the Argonauts in se ...

Eurydice Eurydice (; Ancient Greek: Εὐρυδίκη 'wide justice', classical pronunciation: ) was a character in Greek mythology and the wife of Orpheus, whom Orpheus tried to bring back from the dead with his enchanting music. Etymology Several ...

story (New York 2005; Edinburgh 2005), and ''The Only Girl in the World'', a play about Mary Kelly, the last victim of

Jack the Ripper Jack the Ripper was an unidentified serial killer who was active in and around the impoverished Whitechapel district of London, England, in 1888. In both criminal case files and the contemporaneous journalistic accounts, the killer was also ...

(Hoxton Hall, 2001, Arcola, 2008). He contributed the fantasy ''The Black Remote'' to the National Theatre's Connections series in 2006. He is the Resident Playwright for New York's Phoenix Theatre Ensemble, who have staged ''Broken Journey'', ''Wolfpit'', ''The Lifeblood'' and ''Agamemnon Home'' in New York, and will present ''The Gambler'' (after Dostoevsky's novella) in January 2016 at the Wild Project in the East Village. His verse monologue, ''The Best Man'', was turned into a feature film starring Danny Swanson (dir. Jon Croker). Several of Maxwell's plays and opera libretti are published by Oberon Books. Maxwell directed his own play ''The City of Tomorrow'' at the Barn Theatre, Welwyn Garden City, in 2020, as part of the centenary celebrations of his home town.

Interviews

Glyn Maxwell was interviewed about his verse drama plays on the podcast '' Hamlet to Hamilton: Exploring Verse Drama'', hosted by Emily C. A. Snyder and Colin Kovarik.

Radio

His radio plays for

BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, Radio drama, drama, High culture, culture and the arts ...

and

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

include: ''Lexicon'' (2015, dir. Toby Swift, starring Sally Phillips), ''Time For One More Question'', (2015, dir. Nadia Molinari, a celebration of the Hay Festival), ''Shakespeare's Fire'', (2015, dir. Frank Stirling, starring Jane Horrocks), ''Cyrano De Bergerac'', (2015, dir. Susan Roberts, starring Tom Burke), ''The City of Tomorrow'', (2014, dir. Tim Dee, starring Pippa Haywood and Julian Rhind-Tutt), ''The Gambler'' (2009, dir. Guy Retallack, starring Patricia Routledge) and ''Childminders'' (2006, dir. Peter Kavanagh, starring Olivia Williams). In 1994 he travelled to

with his friend and fellow-poet Simon Armitage, to make a series for Radio 3. This became the travelogue ''Moon Country'' (Faber, 1996). In 1996 they travelled to

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

for another Radio 3 series, ''To Bahia and Beyond.''

Opera

Maxwell's libretto for David Bruce's '' The Firework Maker's Daughter'', (2013, dir. John Fulljames, based on the Philip Pullman story) was nominated for an

Olivier Award The Laurence Olivier Awards, or simply The Olivier Awards, are presented annually by the Society of London Theatre to recognize excellence in professional theatre in London. The awards were originally known as the Society of West End Theatre Aw ...

in 2014. It played at the Linbury in the

Royal Opera House The Royal Opera House (ROH) is a theatre in Covent Garden, central London. The building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. The ROH is the main home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, and the Orch ...

, as well as in New York and a UK tour. His other operas include

Luke Bedford Luke Bedford (born 25 April 1978) is a British composer. He studied composition with Edwin Roxburgh and Simon Bainbridge at the Royal College of Music, and won the Mendelssohn Scholarship in 2000. This was followed by post-graduate study with Si ...

's ''Seven Angels'', premiered at

Birmingham Contemporary Music Group Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (BCMG) is a British chamber ensemble based in Birmingham, England specialising in the performance of Contemporary classical music, new and contemporary music. BCMG performs regularly at the CBSO Centre and Symph ...

in June 2010 before a UK tour, and Elena Langer's opera ''The Lion's Face'', which toured the UK in 2009. A short version of ''The Lion's Face'', (then titled ''The Present'') won the Audience Prize at the

Zurich Opera House The Zurich Opera House () is an opera house in the Swiss city of Zurich. Located at the Sechseläutenplatz, it has been the home of the Zurich Opera since 1891, and also houses the Bernhard-Theater Zürich. It is also home to Ballett Zürich. I ...

's New Opera Festival in January 2009. His other libretti include ''The Girl of Sand'', also composed by Elena Langer and performed at the Almeida Opera Festival in 2004, and ''The Birds'' (after

), composed by Edward Dudley Hughes and performed by I Fagiolini at the

City of London Festival The City of London Festival was an annual arts festival that took place in the City of London, England, over two to three weeks in June and July. The Festival was strongly geared towards classical music, but also offered a programme that included ...

in 2005. In 2016, Maxwell collaborated with David Bruce again, on ''

Nothing Nothing, no-thing, or no thing is the complete absence of ''anything'', as the opposite of ''something'' and an antithesis of everything. The concept of nothing has been a matter of philosophical debate since at least the 5th century BCE. Ea ...

'', an opera adapted from the book by Janne Teller. This was staged at

Glyndebourne Glyndebourne () is an English country house, the site of an opera house that, since 1934, has been the venue for the annual Glyndebourne Festival Opera. The house, located near Lewes in East Sussex, England, is thought to be about six hundre ...

in 2016 (dir. Bijan Sheibani) and subsequently at

Aarhus Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus municipality, Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and app ...

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

Journalism, Editorial

Maxwell was Poetry Editor of ''

The New Republic ''The New Republic'' (often abbreviated as ''TNR'') is an American magazine focused on domestic politics, news, culture, and the arts from a left-wing perspective. It publishes ten print magazines a year and a daily online platform. ''The New Y ...

'' from 2001 to 2007. He has reviewed for the ''

Times Literary Supplement ''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp. History The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication ...

'', ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...

The London Review of Books The ''London Review of Books'' (''LRB'') is a British literary magazine published bimonthly that features articles and essays on fiction and non-fiction subjects, which are usually structured as book reviews. History The ''London Review of Boo ...

'', ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' and ''

''. He is 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 ...

and the

Welsh Academy Literature Wales, formerly named the Academi, is the Welsh national literature promotion agency and society of writers, existing to promote Welsh-language literature, Welsh-language and Welsh literature in English, English-language literature i ...

Teaching

Maxwell has taught at

Amherst College Amherst College ( ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zepha ...

, Princeton, Columbia, NYU and The New School in the USA, and at The Universities of

Warwick Warwick ( ) is a market town, civil parish and the county town of Warwickshire in the Warwick District in England, adjacent to the River Avon, Warwickshire, River Avon. It is south of Coventry, and south-east of Birmingham. It is adjoined wit ...

and

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 ...

in the UK. He currently teaches on the M.A. at The Poetry School in London.

Current life

Maxwell has one daughter, Alfreda Rose Maxwell (b. 13 March 1997, known as AlfieThe Peerage , A genealogical survey of the peerage of Britain as well as the royal families of Europe
/ref>): she writes and performs music as Alfreda. Maxwell lives in

Angel An angel is a spiritual (without a physical body), heavenly, or supernatural being, usually humanoid with bird-like wings, often depicted as a messenger or intermediary between God (the transcendent) and humanity (the profane) in variou ...

Islington in London.

References

External links

Author biography at contemporarywriters.comWebsite for the film version of ''The Best Man''

The Execution of Saint-Just at Thermidor
Maxwell poem published in ''

The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Maxwell, Glyn 1962 births Living people Alumni of Worcester College, Oxford Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Formalist poets English male poets