Curated playlist
20th-century English poets
- George OrwellGeorge Orwell was a pen name, chosen from a shortlist in 1932. He was born Eric Arthur Blair in British India.
- J. R. R. TolkienOn his 21st birthday, Tolkien proposed by letter to a woman who was already engaged.
- Rudyard KiplingRudyard Kipling turned down both a knighthood and the Poet Laureateship. He won the 1907 Nobel Prize in Literature.
- Thomas HardyThomas Hardy's heart and ashes were buried in two different places. The Abbey got his ashes, Stinsford his heart.
- A. A. MilneA. A. Milne accused his old cricket teammate P. G. Wodehouse of near treason.
- W. H. AudenW. H. Auden died hours after reading his poems aloud in a Vienna hotel.
- Sheila Kaye-SmithSheila Kaye-Smith slipped a joke about Cold Comfort Farm into her own 1939 novel.
- Robert BridgesRobert Bridges was the only medical graduate to hold the office of Poet Laureate. He was appointed in 1913.
- Philip LarkinPhilip Larkin turned down the job of Poet Laureate in 1984. He felt he had long since stopped being a poet.
- Richard AldingtonRichard Aldington replaced banned words in his war novel with asterisks so readers could see the censoring.
- A. L. RowseA china clay worker's son from Cornwall claimed to name Shakespeare's Dark Lady.