Andrew Motion

Poet, novelist and biographer from England · United Kingdom · On the map · Writers · Born 1952 · age 74

Sir Andrew Motion is an English poet, novelist, and biographer, who was Poet Laureate from 1999 to 2009. During the period of his laureateship, Motion founded the Poetry Archive, an online resource of poems and audio recordings of poets reading their own work.

Andrew Motion is read about 94 times a day, in 15 languages.

A typical day, 30 days to 17 June 2026

The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 60 days, one point a day.

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A life in dates

2005“Poets know their own poems in a way and to a depth that is unique.. even if they mumble a bit ..their delivery will still have important things to tell us.”In their words25 November 2005'TLS' 25 November 2005Read the whole statement

2002Honorary DoctorateAward1987Somerset Maugham AwardAward1984Fellow of the Royal Society of LiteratureAward1979Cholmondeley AwardAward1976Eric Gregory AwardAward1952Born26 October 1952

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Radley College

In their own words 2

Andrew Motion

2 statements, newest first

In the swirl of its pool / the home-coming salmon / has no intuition / of anything changed.
"You Helped Give a Shape", An elegy on the death of HM Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, Own words
By day the appalling loose beauty / of prowling floes: / lions’ heads, dragons, crucifix-wrecks, / and a thing like a blown rose.
Poem "Ice", Own words