Charles Causley, CBE (August 24, 1917 – November 4, 2003) was a Cornish poet and writer. His work is noted for its simplicity and directness, for its concerns with Christianity and for its associations with his native Cornwall. The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions; in decreasing order of seniority, these are Knight Grand Cross or Dame Grand Cross (GBE) Knight Commander... is the 236th day of the year (237th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1917 (MCMXVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar (see: 1917 Julian calendar). ... is the 308th day of the year (309th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Cornish people are a British ethnic group originating in Cornwall. ... The poor poet A poet is a person who writes poetry. ... A writer is anyone who creates a written work, although the word more usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, or those who have written in many different forms. ... Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations · Other religions Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Archbishop of Canterbury · Catholic Pope Coptic Pope · Ecumenical Patriarch Christianity Portal This box:      Christianity is... For other uses, see Cornwall (disambiguation). ...

Biography

Causley was born in Launceston in Cornwall and was educated there and in Peterborough. An office boy at sixteen (forced to leave school at the death of his father), he served in the Navy during the Second World War,as a coder, an experience he later wrote about in a book of short stories, Hands to Dance. His first collection of poems, Farewell, Aggie Weston (1951)contained his Song of the Dying Dunner A.A.1, which made an immediate impression: 'Farewell, Aggie Weston, the Barracks, at Guz,/ Hang my tiddley suit on the door/ I'm sewn up neat in a canvas sheet/ And I shan't be home no more.' Survivor's Leave followed in 1953,and from then until his death Causley published regularly. He worked as a teacher at a school in Launceston, leaving the town seldom and reluctantly, though he twice spent time in Perth as a visiting Fellow at the University of Western Australia, and especially after his retirement was much in demand at poetry readings in the United Kingdom. He made many broadcasts. Disambiguation: for the Australian town, please see Launceston, Tasmania Launceston (Cornish: Lannstefan; the English name is pronounced , or , usually without the t by the Cornish, but with by everyone else) is a town and civil parish in the north of Cornwall, England, with a population of approximately 7,000. ... This article is about the city in England. ... The University of Western Australia (UWA) is the oldest university in the state of Western Australia. ...

An intensely private person, he was nevertheless always approachable, and became a close friend of writers as diverse as Siegfried Sassoon, A. L. Rowse, Jack Clemo and Ted Hughes (his closest friend). His poems for children were extremely popular, and he used to say that he could have lived comfortably on the fees paid for the reproduction of only one of them, Timothy Winters: 'Timothy Winters comes to school/ With eyes as wide as a football pool/ Ears like bombs and teeth like splinters/ A blitz of a boy is Timothy Winters.' Siegfried Loraine Sassoon, CBE MC (8 September 1886 – 1 September 1967) was an English poet and author. ... Alfred Leslie Rowse, CH FBA (December 4, 1903 – October 3, 1997), known professionally as A. L. Rowse and to his friends and family as Leslie, was a prolific British historian. ... Reginald John Clemo (Jack Clemo) (March 11, 1916 - July 25, 1994) was a British poet and writer, strongly associated both with his native Cornwall and his Christian belief. ... 1 Aspinall Street, Mytholmroyd, West Yorkshire, where Ted Hughes was born. ...

In 1958 Causley was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and was awarded a CBE in 1986. When he was 83 years old he was made a Companion of Literature by the Royal Society of Literature - an award he greeted with the words, 'My goodness, what an encouragement!'Other awards include the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in 1967 and a Cholmondeley Award in 1971. In 1973 - 1974 he was Visiting Fellow in Poetry at the University of Exeter, receiving an honorary doctorate from that university. He was presented with the Heywood Hill Literary Prize in 2000. Between 1962 and 1966 he was a member of the Poetry Panel of the Arts Council of Great Britain. He was twice awarded a travelling scholarship by the Society of Authors. He won the Heywood Hill Prize. There was a campaign, unsuccessful, to have him appointed Poet Laureate on the death of Betjeman. The Royal Society of Literature is the senior literary organisation in Britain. External link The Royal Society of Literature Categories: Literature stubs | Literature of the United Kingdom ... The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions; in decreasing order of seniority, these are Knight Grand Cross or Dame Grand Cross (GBE) Knight Commander... The Royal Society of Literature is the senior literary organisation in Britain. External link The Royal Society of Literature Categories: Literature stubs | Literature of the United Kingdom ... The Gold Medal for Poetry, originally instituted by King George V, is awarded in some years on 23 April, for a book of verse written by a United Kingdom or British Commonwealth citizen; before 1985 it was awarded only to British writers (this rule clearly not having hardened by 1940). ... The Cholmondeley Award is given by the Society of Authors for poetry. ... The University of Exeter (usually abbreviated as Exon. ... The Arts Council of Great Britain was a Quango dedicated to the promotion of the fine arts in Britain. ... The Society of Authors (UK) is a trade union for professional writers that was founded in 1884 to protect the rights of writers and fight to retain those rights (with particular attention to copyright protection and, later, the establishment of Public Lending Right). ...

In 1982, on his 65th birthday, a book of poems was published in his honour that included contributions from Ted Hughes, Seamus Heaney, Philip Larkin and twenty three other poets, testifying to the respect and indeed love that the British poetry community had for him. His work is intenselt original (though influenced to an extent by W. H. Auden) and many consider him, like John Betjeman to be a man working outside of the dominant trends of the poetry of his day. Because of this, academia has paid less attention to his work than it might. His popularity, particularly among the Cornish, remains relatively high. 1 Aspinall Street, Mytholmroyd, West Yorkshire, where Ted Hughes was born. ... Seamus Justin Heaney (IPA: ) (born 13 April 1939) is an Irish poet, writer and lecturer who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995. ... Philip Arthur Larkin, CH, CBE, FRSL, (9 August 1922 – 2 December 1985) was an English poet, novelist and jazz critic. ... A collection of Betjemans poetry, published by John Murray in January 2006 Sir John Betjeman CBE (28 August 1906 – 19 May 1984) was an English poet, writer and broadcaster who described himself in Whos Who as a poet and hack. He was born to a middle-class family...

Publications

• Hands to Dance (short stories, 1951)
• Farewell, Aggie Weston (1951)
• Survivor's Leave (1953)
• Union Street (1957)
• Johnny Alleluia (1961)
• Underneath the Water (1968)
• Figure of 8 (narrative poems for children ?)
• Figgie Hobbin (for children, 1971)
• The Tail of the Trinosaur (for children, 1973)
• Secret Destinations (1984)
• Collected Poems (1975)

For children

• 'Quack!' said the Billy-goat (c1970)
• As I went down Zig Zag (1974)
• Dick Whittington (1976)
• The Animals' Carol (1978)
• Early in the Morning: A Collection of New Poems (1986)
• Jack the Treacle Eater (1987)
• The Young Man of Cury and Other Poems (1991)
• All day Saturday: and other poems (1994)
• Selected poems for children (1997)
• The Merrymaid of Zennor (1999)

Plays

• The Conquering Hero (1937)
• Benedict (1938)
• How Pleasant to Know Mrs. Lear: A Victorian comedy in one act (1948)
• The Ballad of Aucassin and Nicolette (Libretto, 1981)

As editor

• Peninsula
• Dawn and Dusk
• Rising Early
• Modern Folk Ballads
• The Puffin Book of Magic Verse

External links

• 11 Poems
• Causley's Grave
• Listen to Causley reading some of his poems
• Goia The Most Unfashionable Poet Alive
• Obituary
• Charles Causley
• British Library