Tom Rawling (1916–1996) was a teacher, angler and late-developing poet who wrote what Peter Porter called some of the "most unforced collections of nature poems for some years". His favoured subject was the Ennerdale valley in the English

Lake District The Lake District, also known as ''the Lakes'' or ''Lakeland'', is a mountainous region and National parks of the United Kingdom, national park in Cumbria, North West England. It is famous for its landscape, including its lakes, coast, and mou ...

where he grew up in the early twentieth century. Rawling was born in 1916 in Ennerdale, then called Cumberland, now Cumbria. Educated at the village school and then Whitehaven Grammar School, he studied History at University College, London. He spent the Second World War in the Royal Artillery and then returned to teaching. For the next thirty years, he taught in primary, secondary and special schools, returning to Cumbria every year, fly-fishing for sea-trout, often with the late

Hugh Falkus Hugh Falkus (15 May 1917 – 30 March 1996) was a British writer, filmmaker and presenter, World War II pilot and angler. In an extremely varied career, he is perhaps best known for his seminal books on angling, particularly salmon and sea trout ...

. Retiring in 1976, he began to write poetry, joining the group that had formed around

Anne Stevenson Anne Katharine Stevenson (January 3, 1933 – September 14, 2020) was an American-British poet and writer and recipient of a Lannan Literary Award. Life Stevenson was the first daughter of Louise Destler Stevenson and philosopher Charles Ste ...

in Oxford during the mid-1970s. With Stevenson's encouragement, his first poems were published under the title ''A Sort of Killing'', in the Old Fire Station Poets series, an early venture by

Neil Astley Neil Astley, Hon. FRSL (born 12 May 1953) is an English publisher, editor and writer. He is best known as the founder of the poetry publishing house Bloodaxe Books. Life and work Astley was born in Portchester, Hampshire, and grew up in nearby ...

who went on to found the important

Bloodaxe Books Bloodaxe Books is a British publishing house specializing in poetry. History Bloodaxe Books was founded in 1978 in Newcastle upon Tyne by Neil Astley, who is still editor and managing director. Bloodaxe moved its editorial office to Northumbe ...

poetry press, based in Newcastle. A full collection, ''Ghosts At My Back,'' was published by

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

in 1982. However, to Rawling's disappointment, OUP did not consider his work commercial enough for a second book. Later poems were published by smaller presses: ''The Old Showfield'' in 1984 and ''The Names of the Sea-Trout'' in 1993. From 1979, Rawling took over the workshop established by Stevenson at the Old Fire Station Arts Centre, George Street, Oxford. Poets associated with this group included

Anne Born Anne Born (9 July 1924 – 27 July 2011) was a British poet, local historian, writer and translator. Biography Anne Rosemary Cookes was born in south London on 9 July 1924. She joined the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry during the Second World War, ...

Pauline Stainer Pauline Anita Stainer (''née'' Rogers, born 5 March 1941) is an English poet. She was born Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. She left the city to study at St Anne's College, Oxford, where she took a degree in English. After Oxford she comp ...

, Peter Forbes, Helen Kidd,

W.N. Herbert W. N. Herbert , also known as Bill Herbert (born 1961) is a poet from Dundee, Scotland. He writes in both English and Scots. He and Richard Price founded the poetry magazine ''Gairfish''. He currently teaches at Newcastle University. Early li ...

Elizabeth Garrett Helen Elizabeth Garrett, commonly known as Elizabeth Garrett or Beth Garrett (June 30, 1963 – March 6, 2016), was an American professor of law and academic administrator. On July 1, 2015, she became the 13th president of Cornell University� ...

, Martyn Crucefix and Keith Jebb. Rawling's poem 'Privy' was shortlisted in the Arvon/Observer International Poetry Competition in 1985. A new selection of poems and prose pieces was published under the title ''How Hall: Poems and Memories - a passion for Ennerdale''. There was an accompanying CD of Rawling reading the poems, recorded in 1983.

References

External links

* Listen Up North - Writer's profile and audio files * * A Lake Poet Rediscovered -

Grevel Lindop Grevel Charles Garrett Lindop (born 6 October 1948) is an English poet, academic and literary critic. Life Lindop was born in Liverpool to solicitor John Neale Lindop, LL.M. and Winifred (née Garrett), and educated at Liverpool College, then W ...

on Tom Rawling * * Reading Detectives on Tom Rawling's collection ''How Hall'' * Amazon Books * * Brief profile of Tom Rawling on BBC Countryfile (19 February 2012) featuring

- go to minute 49 of the programme: {{DEFAULTSORT:Rawling, Tom People from Cumberland 1996 deaths 1916 births Alumni of University College London 20th-century English poets