Adrian Henri

Adrian Henri was a British poet and painter best remembered as the founder of poetry-rock group The Liverpool Scene and as one of three poets in the best-selling anthology The Mersey Sound, along with Brian Patten and Roger McGough. The trio of Liverpool poets came to prominence in that city's Merseybeat zeitgeist of the 1960s and 1970s. Their accessible and performative style helped bring poetry to a wider popular audience beyond traditional literary circles. He was described by Edward Lucie-Smith in British Poetry since 1945 as the "theoretician" of the three. Henri's characterisation of popular culture in verse helped to widen the audience for poetry among 1960s British youth. He was influenced by the French Symbolist school of poetry and surrealist art.