Geoffrey Grigson - Life

Life

Grigson was educated at St John's School, Leatherhead, and at St Edmund Hall, Oxford. He first came to prominence in the 1930s as a poet, then as editor from 1933 of the influential poetry magazine New Verse. Fiercely combative, he made many literary enemies for his dogmatic views.

At various times he was involved in teaching, journalism and broadcasting. During World War II he worked in the editorial department of the BBC Monitoring Service at Wood Norton near Evesham.

Later in life he was a noted critic, reviewer (for the New York Review of Books in particular), and compiler of numerous poetry anthologies. He published 13 collections of poetry, and wrote on travel, on art (notably works on Samuel Palmer, Wyndham Lewis and Henry Moore), on the English countryside, and on botany, among other subjects.

Grigson was the castaway featured in an edition of Roy Plomley's Desert Island Discs broadcast on 16 October 1982. His chosen records were: Joseph Haydn, String Quartet in F major, Op. 3/5 "Serenade" (Janáček Quartet); Benjamin Britten, Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings (soloist Peter Pears, Dennis Brain; Boyd Neel String Orchestra, conductor Benjamin Britten); Henry Purcell, "When I am laid in earth" ("Dido's Lament"), from Dido and Aeneas (soloist Victoria de los Ángeles; English Chamber Orchestra, conductor John Barbirolli); Joseph Haydn, "She never told her love" (Canzonetta) (soloist Peter Pears, Benjamin Britten) - picked as Grigson's favourite; Joseph Haydn, String Quartet in D major (Tátrai Quartet); Georges Bizet, Jeux d'enfants (Paris Conservatoire Orchestra, conductor Jean Martinon); Benjamin Britten, "Death be not proud" (from The Holy Sonnets of John Donne), soloist Peter Pears, Zorian String Quartet, conductor Benjamin Britten; Giuseppe Verdi, "Va, pensiero, sull'ali dorate" (Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves) from Nabucco (La Scala Chorus and Orchestra). His chosen book was The Oxford English Dictionary, and his luxury item was Pâté de foie gras.

Geoffrey Grigson in his later life lived partly in Wiltshire, England, and partly in Trôo, a village in the Loir-et-Cher département in France, which features in his poetry. He died in Wiltshire in 1985.