Andrew Motion

Professor Andrew Motion was born in London, and read English at University College, Oxford. He taught English at the University of Hull (1976-81) where he met the poet Philip Larkin. He was editor of Poetry Review(1981-83) and was Poetry Editor and Editorial Director at London publishers Chatto and Windus (1983-89). He succeeded Malcolm Bradbury as Professor of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He has been Chairman of the Arts Council of England's Literature Panel since 1996. An acclaimed poet (and champion of poetry), critic, biographer and lecturer, Andrew Motion became Poet Laureate in 1999, succeeding Ted Hughes.

He was awarded the Newdigate Prize at Oxford for his poem Inland, included in his first collection of poems, The Pleasure Steamers, published in 1977. His poetry collections include Independence; Secret Narratives ; Dangerous Play: Poems 1974-1984 (1984), which won the Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize; Natural Causes, which won the Dylan Thomas Award; The Price of Everything; Salt Water and Selected Poems 1976-1997.

Andrew Motion is also the author of several acclaimed biographies including The Lamberts: George, Constant and Kit, which won a Somerset Maugham Award; Philip Larkin: A Writer's Life, which won the Whitbread Biography Award; a life of John Keats published in 1997; and Wainewright the Poisoner (2000), an account of the life of Thomas Wainewright, critic, forger, painter and suspected murderer.

Andrew Motion lives in London. His most recent collection of poems is Public Property (2002). His new short novel, The Invention of Dr Cake, which combines elements of mystery and detective fiction, was published in 2003.

A memoir, In The Blood, was published in 2006, and a selection of his autobiographical and critical writings, Ways of Life: On Places, Painters and Poets in 2008.

Read Andrew Motion's reflections on Old Man by Edward Thomas

Fact file

Name: Andrew Motion

Date of birth: 26.10.1952

Place of birth: London

Current Home: London

Education: University College, Oxford

Similar Authors: Philip Larkin, Seamus Heaney, Ted Hughes, Jenny Uglow, AN Wilson, Peter Ackroyd