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Reviewing Brownjohn's Collected Poems (Enitharmon Press, 2006), Anthony Thwaite wrote in The Guardian: "...he is a social poet in the sense that if people in the future want to know what many lives were like in the second half of the 20th century, they should read Alan Brownjohn - observant, troubled, humane, scrupulous, wry, funny."
Feb 27, 2024 · Humanists UK is saddened to learn of the death of Alan Brownjohn, a luminary poet, novelist, and critic, who has died aged 92.
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Alan Brownjohn was an English poet and novelist who made himself known in the literary world not only through his works but also through his involvement in a number of organizations. He even tried his hand as a politician. His career was a long and successful one, with some of his best works coming in his 70s. With his writing, Brownjohn was consid...
Alan Brownjohn was born in July 1931 in Catford, south-east London, England. As a young man, he was educated at Brocklet County School and then at Merton College, Oxford. At Oxford, he went on to study history. After graduating, he went on to work as a schoolteacher and assistant master from 1958 to 1965 at Beckenham and Penge boys’ grammar school,...
It was in 1979 that he became a full-time freelance writer and broadcaster. The following years saw him work with the Time Literary Supplement as well as the New Statesman, as a poetry editor, and the Sunday Times. He also wrote for the Guardian, creating obituaries. After making this change, he began to participate in Philip Hobsbaum’s weekly poet...
Brownjohn’s first collection was titled Travelers Alone; it was published in 1954. It was followed seven years later by The Railingsin 1961, which was seen by some to be akin to the style of William Empson and Robert Graves. As Brownjohn’s literary style evolved, he began to incorporate greater elements of fiction into his poetry. He also started w...
Brownjohn's poetry is, characteristically, good‐humoured, ironic, and urbane, and, in P. Porter's phrase, it unites ‘wit and civic responsibility’ in its survey of contemporary social, domestic, and literary life.
Alan Brownjohn was made a patron of Humanists UK for his exploration of the human condition through the arts. Born in 1931, Alan Brownjohn’s career has included teaching, lecturing, and poetry criticism, but he is best known as a poet.
Although the subject matter of Brownjohn's poetry ranges widely, taking in such traditional themes as love and childhood, it is the expression of his concern for social issues that marks his work as especially his own.
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Mar 17, 2024 · Alan Brownjohn, who has died aged 92, was a poet, novelist and critic whose writing could darkly mock the modern world; he produced an astonishing range of poetry, from the formal and elegiac...
