| Description | The collection contains worksheets and drafts of all of his poetry collections (1974- ), and also includes typescripts of BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4 broadcasts (1980-1988), together with drafts, worksheets and printed copies of Christmas poems, essays and reviews (1976-2002).
Later deposits have included drafts and worksheets of poems from 'Opposite Views' (1974) and 'The Kingdom of Atlas' (1980) and manuscripts for the following: Eye-Baby (2006), 'Early powers' poem translation, Four Christmas poems (2000-2005), Cross-currents (2005), 21 for Erica' (1995); 'Ghostings': worksheets and drafts ('Waking Dreams', 2010); published copy of 'Songs of the Darkness: poems for Christmas' (2010), signed by both artist and illustrator as well as drafts and worksheets for other prose and poetry works, and for various projects.
Also drafts and worksheets of poems from 'The Quick' (2015), 'Light Unlocked: Christmas Card Poems' (2005); 'The Key to Clover and other essays' (2013); talks and articles; issues of P.N. Review (1978-2010) and Stand (1976-1998) containing his essays, reviews and poems. |
| Admin History | Lawrence Sail was born in London in 1942 and brought up in Exeter, Devon. Reading French and German at St. John's College, Oxford, he taught for over four years in Kenya before returning to the UK to hold other teaching posts. He then turned to freelance writing.
He has published many collections of poems including 'The Quick' (2015), 'Songs of the Darkness: Poems for Christmas' (2010), Waking Dreams: New & selected Poems (2010), 'Eye Baby' (2006) 'The World Returning' (2002), 'Building into Air' (1995), and 'Out of Land' (1992). He has compiled and edited a number of anthologies, including 'The Heart's Granary' (2017), 'First and Always: Poems for Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital' (1988) and (with Kevin Crossley-Holland) 'The New Exeter Book of Riddles' (1999). He was editor of 'South West Review' from 1980 to 1985. He has worked in schools and colleges, and was a frequent participant in the W.H. Smith Writers in Schools scheme. His poems have been broadcast on both radio and television, and he has also written a radio play, as well as various short features for radio. He has presented 'Poetry Now' (BBC Radio 3) and 'Time for Verse' (BBC Radio 4). He has contributed reviews and essays to 'Poetry Nation Review', 'Poetry Review' and 'Stand'.
He was chairman of the Arvon Foundation from 1990 to 1994, and was programme director of the Cheltenham Festival of Literature and a judge for the Whitebread Book of the Year awards in 1991. In 1992 he was awarded a Hawthornden Fellowship, and an Arts Council Writer's Bursary the following year. In August 1993 he undertook a month-long tour of India for the British Council, for whom he has since worked as a visiting writer and lecturer in various countries, including Egypt, Bosnia and Ukraine. From 1994 to 1996 he was the British representative on the jury of the European Literature Prize. In October 1999 he was one of the co-directors of the 50th Anniversary Cheltenham Festival of Literature. In 2004 he was a judge for the Eric Gregory Awards. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. |