Sir Andrew Motion 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, taking over from Bill Bryson.
Paul Muldoon is an Irish poet.
Fleur Adcock was a New Zealand poet and editor. Of English and Northern Irish ancestry, Adcock lived much of her life in England. She is well-represented in New Zealand poetry anthologies, was awarded an honorary doctorate of literature from Victoria University of Wellington, and was awarded an OBE in 1996 for her contribution to New Zealand literature. In 2008 she was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to literature.
Sir William Robert Ferdinand Mount, 3rd Baronet, FRSL, is a British writer, novelist, and columnist for The Sunday Times, as well as a political commentator.
Hanif Kureishi is a British Pakistani playwright, screenwriter, filmmaker, and novelist. He is known for his film My Beautiful Laundrette and novel The Buddha of Suburbia.
Robert Scott Alexander, Baron Alexander of Weedon,QC, FRSA was a British barrister, banker and Conservative politician.
Admiral Charles Ramsay Arbuthnot was an officer of the British Royal Navy.
The Hay Festival of Literature & Arts, better known as the Hay Festival, is an annual literature festival held in Hay-on-Wye, Powys, Wales, for 10 days from May to June. Devised by Norman, Rhoda and Peter Florence in 1988, the festival was described by Bill Clinton in 2001 as "The Woodstock of the mind". Tony Benn said: "In my mind it's replaced Christmas".
The Errington Baronetcy, of Ness in the County Palatine of Chester, was created in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom on 26 June 1963 for Sir Eric Errington, 1st Baronet.
Julia Copus FRSL is a British poet, biographer and children's writer.
Matthew Evans, Baron Evans of Temple Guiting,, was a British Labour Party politician. Evans' father was the writer George Ewart Evans.
Caroline Beatrix Bridgeman, Viscountess Bridgeman, DBE, JP was an English aristocrat, political activist, and churchwoman.
Lavinia Elaine Greenlaw is an English poet, novelist and non-fiction writer. She won the Prix du Premier Roman with her first novel and her poetry has been shortlisted for awards that include the T. S. Eliot Prize, Forward Prize and Whitbread Poetry Prize. She was shortlisted for the 2014 Costa Poetry Award for A Double Sorrow: A Version of Troilus and Criseyde. Greenlaw currently holds the post of Professor of Creative Writing (Poetry) at Royal Holloway, University of London.
George Ewart Evans was a Welsh-born schoolteacher, writer and folklorist who became a dedicated collector of oral history and oral tradition in the East Anglian countryside from the 1940s to 1970s, and produced eleven books of collections of these materials.
Sir John Peter Boileau, 1st Baronet FRS, DL, JP was a British baronet and archaeologist.
Janet Buchanan Adam Smith OBE was a Scottish writer, editor, literary journalist, and champion of Scottish literature. She was active from the 1930s through to the end of the century.
The National Poetry Library is a free public collection housed at Royal Festival Hall in London's Southbank Centre. Situated on the fifth floor of the Royal Festival Hall, overlooking the river Thames, the library aims to hold all contemporary UK poetry publications since 1912. It houses the largest collection in Britain, numbering over 200,000 items, including works by small presses. It also holds audio and video materials, critical texts and works for children for loan and reference.
Caroline Julia Primrose, Lady Dalmeny is a British former defence policy analyst. Lady Dalmeny was married to Harry Primrose, Lord Dalmeny. They were reported to be divorcing in 2014.
Penelope Valentine Hester Chetwode, Lady Betjeman was an English travel writer. She was the only daughter of Field Marshal Lord Chetwode, and the wife of poet laureate Sir John Betjeman. She was born at Aldershot and grew up in northern India, returning to the region in later life.
Claire Armitstead FRSL is a British journalist and author. She is Associate Editor (Culture) at The Guardian, where she has worked since 1992. She is also a cultural commentator on literature and the arts, and makes appearances on radio and television, as well as leading workshops and chairing literary events in the UK and at international festivals. She has judged literary competitions including the Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books, the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, the PEN Pinter Prize and the Scotiabank Giller Prize.
