Terence Rogers Tiller (19 September 1916 – 24 December 1987) was an English poet and radio producer.

Early life, poet

Tiller was born in

Truro Truro (; ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in Cornwall, England; it is the southernmost city in the United Kingdom, just under west-south-west of Charing Cross in London. It is Cornwall's county town, s ...

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

and educated at

Latymer Upper School Latymer Upper School is a public school in Hammersmith, London, England, on King Street. It derives from a charity school, and is part of the same 1624 Latymer Foundation, from a bequest by the English legal official Edward Latymer. There ...

in Hammersmith.Obituary of Terence Tiller, ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'', 5 January 1988, p. 14 He studied history at

Jesus College, Cambridge Jesus College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Jesus College was established in 1496 on the site of the twelfth-century Benedictine nunnery of St Radegund's Priory, Cambridge, St ...

, where he graduated with a starred first-class BA degree in 1937 and won the Chancellor's Medal for English Verse. He then lectured in medieval history at Cambridge from 1937 to 1939. But then, just before the war, he accepted an academic position in Cairo, where he remained stranded. For the next six years he taught English literature at what was then the King Fuad I University. While there he became associated with the Personal Landscape group of poets that also included

Keith Douglas Keith Castellain Douglas (24 January 1920 – 9 June 1944) was an English poet and soldier noted for his war poetry during the Second World War and his wry memoir of the Western Desert campaign, '' Alamein to Zem Zem''. He was killed in action ...

Lawrence Durrell Lawrence George Durrell (; 27 February 1912 – 7 November 1990) was an expatriate British novelist, poet, dramatist, and travel writer. He was the eldest brother of naturalist and writer Gerald Durrell. Born in India to British colonial pa ...

Robin Fedden Henry Robin Romilly Fedden, CBE (26 November 1908 – 20 March 1977) was an English writer, diplomat and mountaineer. He was the son of artist Romilly Fedden and novelist Katherine Waldo Douglas. Life Raised mostly in Chantemesle, Seine-et-Oise, ...

and

Bernard Spencer Charles Bernard Spencer (1909 – 1963) was an English poet, translator, and editor. He was born in Madras, India and educated at Marlborough College and Corpus Christi College, Oxford. At Marlborough he knew John Betjeman and Louis MacNeice ...

. His enigmatic poems about wartime Egypt, showing the influence of

Wilfred Owen Wilfred Edward Salter Owen Military Cross, MC (18 March 1893 – 4 November 1918) was an English poet and soldier. He was one of the leading poets of the First World War. His war poetry on the horrors of Trench warfare, trenches and Chemi ...

, gained attention through the publication of his ''Poems'' in 1941, followed by ''The Inward Animal'' in 1943. His most acclaimed poetry collection was ''Unarm, Eros'' (1947), containing poems of “strong formal pattern, heraldic imagery, and striking sensuousness”.

BBC

In 1946 he joined the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

Features Department, where he was responsible for hundreds of plays and feature broadcasts on a wide range of subjects, but mainly on history, literature and mythology. His contemporaries in the department included fellow poets

Rayner Heppenstall John Rayner Heppenstall (27 July 1911 in Lockwood, Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England – 23 May 1981 in Deal, Kent, England) was a British novelist, poet, diarist, and a BBC radio producer.John Wakeman, ''World Authors 1950-1970 : a companion vol ...

Louis MacNeice Frederick Louis MacNeice (12 September 1907 – 3 September 1963) was an Irish poet, playwright and producer for the BBC. Known for its exploration of introspection, empiricism, and belonging, his poetic work is now ranked among the twentieth ...

and W R Rodgers. During this period, Tiller became a noted Fitzrovian. He collaborated with the composer

Elizabeth Poston Elizabeth Poston (24 October 1905 – 18 March 1987) was an English composer, pianist and writer. Early life and career Poston was born in Highfield House in Pin Green, which is now the site of Hampson Park in Stevenage. In 1914 she moved wi ...

on features such as ''The Shepherds' Play'' (1947), ''The Death of Adam'' (1949), ''Lilith'' (1950), and ''The Holy Child'' (1952). In 1955 he adapted and produced the first BBC radio series of

J. R. R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlinson ...

's ''

The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an Epic (genre), epic high fantasy novel written by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's book ''The Hobbit'' but eventually d ...

'' (which did not please the author). He adapted and modernized

Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer ( ; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for '' The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He ...

's ''The Parlement of Foules'' in 1958. In 1964 he moved to the Drama Department. His work on the weekly chess programme on the

Third Programme The BBC Third Programme was a national radio station produced and broadcast from 1946 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 3. It first went on the air on 29 September 1946 and became one of the leading cultural and intellectual forces ...

led to his book ''Chess Treasury of the Air'' in 1966. In 1969 he completed the posthumous story ''After Ten Years'' by

C. S. Lewis Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) was a British writer, literary scholar and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Magdalen College, Oxford (1925–1954), and Magdalen ...

for broadcast, and in 1973 he brought

Mervyn Peake Mervyn Laurence Peake (9 July 1911 – 17 November 1968) was a British writer, artist, poet, and illustrator. He is best known for what are usually referred to as the '' Gormenghast'' books. The four works were part of what Peake conceived ...

's ''The Rhyme of the Flying Bomb'' to the airwaves. Tiller retired from the BBC in 1976, but continued working on some projects. In 1979 he dramatized

Vladimir Nabokov Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov ( ; 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (), was a Russian and American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Born in Imperial Russia in 1899, Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Rus ...

's novel ''The Defence''.

Bibliography

;Poetry * ''Poems'' (1941), Hogarth Press) *''The Inward Animal'' (1943) * ''Unarm, Eros'' (1947), *''Reading a Medal, and other poems'' (1957) *''Notes for a Myth'' (1968, Chatto & Windus) * ''That Singing Mesh, and other poems'' (1979) * ''Collected Poems'' (Eyewear Publishing, 2016)''The Collected Poems of Terence Tiller''
/ref> ;As editor, translator * ''The Vision of

Piers Plowman ''Piers Plowman'' (written 1370–86; possibly ) or ''Visio Willelmi de Petro Ploughman'' (''William's Vision of Piers Plowman'') is a Middle English allegorical narrative poem by William Langland. It is written in un-rhymed, alliterative ...

''; translated from Middle English into Modern English verse *A translation of

Dante Dante Alighieri (; most likely baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri; – September 14, 1321), widely known mononymously as Dante, was an Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer, and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called ...

*''Chess Treasury of the Air'' (Penguin Handbooks; PH124; 1966), as editor *''New Poems 1960'', edited with

Anthony Cronin Anthony Gerard Richard Cronin (28 December 1923 – 27 December 2016) was an Irish poet, arts activist, biographer, commentator, critic, editor and barrister. Early life and family Cronin was born in Enniscorthy, County Wexford on 28 Decembe ...

and

Jon Silkin Jon Silkin (2 December 1930 – 25 November 1997) was a British poet. He was also the founder of ''Stand'' magazine in 1952. Early life Jon Silkin was born in London, in a Litvak Jewish family; his parents were Joseph Silkin and Doris Rubenste ...

*John Gower ''

Confessio Amantis ''Confessio Amantis'' ("The Lover's Confession") is a 33,000-line Middle English poem by John Gower, which uses the confession made by an ageing lover to the chaplain of Venus as a frame story for a collection of shorter narrative poems. Accor ...

: 'The Lover's Shrift';'' translated from Middle English into Modern English verse. (Penguin Classic, 1965)

References

1916 births 1987 deaths Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge People from Truro 20th-century English poets People educated at Latymer Upper School {{UK-poet-stub