Andrew Motion

Quick Facts

Full Name	Andrew Motion
Occupation	Poet
Date Of Birth	Oct 26, 1952(1952-10-26)
Age	72
Birthplace	England
Country	United Kingdom
Birth City	England
Horoscope	Scorpio

Andrew Motion Biography

Andrew Motion is one of the most popular and richest Poet who was born on October 26, 1952 in England, England, United Kingdom. English poet, author, creator of the Online Poetry Archive, and United Kingdom Poet Laureate from 1999-2009. His numerous poetry collections include The Pleasure Steamers, Secret Narratives, and The Cinder Path.

He studied with W.H. Auden at University College, Oxford.

Sir Andrew Motion FRSL (born 26 October 1952) is an English poet, novelist, and biographer, who was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom 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.

Between 1976 and 1980, Motion taught English at the University of Hull and while there, at age 24, he had his first volume of poetry published. At Hull he met university librarian and poet Philip Larkin. Motion was later appointed as one of Larkin’s literary executors, which would privilege Motion’s role as his biographer following Larkin’s death in 1985. In Philip Larkin: A Writer’s Life, Motion says that at no time during their nine-year friendship did they discuss writing his biography and it was Larkin’s longtime companion Monica Jones who requested it. He reports how, as executor, he rescued many of Larkin’s papers from imminent destruction following his friend’s death. His 1993 biography of Larkin, which won the Whitbread Prize for Biography, was responsible for bringing about a substantial revision of Larkin’s reputation.

He married and divorced both Joanna Powell and Jan Dalley. With Dalley, he had two sons and a daughter.

Andrew Motion Net Worth

Andrew Motion is one of the richest Poet from United Kingdom. According to our analysis, Wikipedia, Forbes & Business Insider, Andrew Motion 's net worth $5 Million. (Last Update: December 11, 2023)

He was born in London to Gillian Bakewell and Richard Motion, and he began attending boarding school at the age of seven. Later, he studied at Radley College and University College, Oxford.

His mother suffered a serious head injury from a horse riding accident and remained partially comatose and paralyzed until her death nine years later.

Motion was born on 26 October 1952 in London, to (Andrew) Richard Michael Motion (1921-2006), a brewer at Ind Coope, and (Catherine) Gillian (née Bakewell; 1928-1978). Richard Motion was from a brewing dynasty; his grandfather founded Taylor Walker, but this had been absorbed by Ind Coope by Richard Motion’s time. The Motion family were wealthy armigers who lived at Upton House, Banbury, Oxfordshire, and were prominent in the local area; Richard Motion’s grandfather Andrew Richard Motion was a Justice of the Peace for Essex, Oxfordshire and Warwickshire.

Height, Weight & Body Measurements

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Who is Andrew Motion Dating?

According to our records, Andrew Motion married to Kyeong-Soo Kim , Jan Dalley , Joanna Powell. As of December 1, 2023, Andrew Motion’s is not dating anyone.

Relationships Record : We have no records of past relationships for Andrew Motion. You may help us to build the dating records for Andrew Motion!

Motion was appointed Poet Laureate on 1 May 1999, following the death of Ted Hughes, the previous incumbent. The Nobel Prize-winning Northern Irish poet and translator Seamus Heaney had ruled himself out for the post. Breaking with the tradition of the laureate retaining the post for life, Motion stipulated that he would stay for only ten years. The yearly stipend of £200 was increased to £5,000 and he received the customary butt of sack. He wanted to write “poems about things in the news, and commissions from people or organisations involved with ordinary life,” rather than be seen a ‘courtier’. So, he wrote “for the TUC about liberty, about homelessness for the Salvation Army, about bullying for ChildLine, about the foot and mouth outbreak for the Today programme, about the Paddington rail disaster, the 11 September attacks and Harry Patch for the BBC, and more recently about shell shock for the charity Combat Stress, and climate change for the song cycle he finished for Cambridge University with Peter Maxwell Davies.”

Facts & Trivia

Andrew Ranked on the list of most popular Poet. Also ranked in the elit list of famous people born in United Kingdom. Andrew Motion celebrates birthday on October 26 of every year.

In 2003, Motion wrote Regime change, a poem in protest at the Invasion of Iraq from the point of view of Death walking the streets during the conflict, and in 2005, Spring Wedding in honour of the wedding of the Prince of Wales to Camilla Parker Bowles. Commissioned to write in the honour of 109-year-old Harry Patch, the last surviving “Tommy” to have fought in World War I, Motion composed a five-part poem, read and received by Patch at the Bishop’s Palace in Wells in 2008.

Top Facts about Andrew Motion

Key facts from the biography:

• Sir Andrew Motion was Poet Laureate from 1999 to 2009.
• He founded the Poetry Archive during his Laureateship.
• He was born into a Brewing dynasty in London.
• He was a student at University College, Oxford.
• He taught English at the University of Hull until 1980.
• He edited Poetry Review from 1980 to 1982.
• He was appointed one of Philip Larkin’s literary executors.
• He won a Whitbread Prize for Biography in 1993.
• He became professor of creative writing at the University of East Anglia.
• He stipulated that he would stay as Poet Laureate for only 10 years.
• He was an editorial director, poetry editor and professor of creative writing.
• He unveiled a blue plaque on the front wall of 28 St Thomas Street, Southwark in 2002.
• He wrote Regime change, a poem in protest at the Invasion of Iraq in 2003.
• He wrote Spring Wedding in honour of the wedding of the Prince of Wales to Camilla Parker Bowles in 2005.
• He wrote a five-part poem in honour of 109-year-old Harry Patch in 2008.
• He wanted to write “poems about things in the news” while being the Poet Laureate.
• He published a sequel to Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island in 2012.
• He became chairman of the Arts Council of England’s literature panel in 1996.
• He was knighted in the 2009 Queen’s Birthday Honours list.
• He returned to Kingston-upon-Hull for the annual Humber Mouth literature festival in 2010.
• He was Chair of the Man Booker Prize jury in 2010.
• He wrote Coming Home, which won the 2015 Ted Hughes Award for new work in poetry.
• He is currently Homewood Professor of the Arts at Johns Hopkins University.
• He has won the Arvon Prize, the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, Eric Gregory Award, Dylan Thomas Prize and more.

What poems did Andrew Motion write?

• Passing On. by Andrew Motion. …
• The Life of Harry Patch. by Andrew Motion. …
• Audrey Wills. by Andrew Motion. …
• Holy Island. by Andrew Motion. …
• The Discoveries of Geography. by Andrew Motion. …
• The Gardener. by Andrew Motion. …
• Rhapsodies. by Andrew Motion. …
• The Dog of the Light Brigade. by Andrew Motion.

When was Andrew Motion poet laureate?

Motion has served as editor for the Poetry Review and as editorial director and poetry editor for Chatto & Windus; he was knighted in 2009. From 1999–2009 , he was poet laureate for the UK.

Where was Andrew Motion born?

London, United Kingdom

Which british poet laureate preceded Andrew Motion?

Sir Andrew Motion FRSL
Preceded by| Ted Hughes
Succeeded by| Carol Ann Duffy
Personal details
Born| 26 October 1952 London, England

What are Carol Ann Duffy poems about?

Poems