Ralph Hodgson

He shunned publicity and guarded his personal life fiercely but, at the same time, was a great, sometimes exhausting talker. He kept up a copious correspondence with other poets and literary figures, especially Siegfried Sassoon, as well as people he met in his time in Japan, such as Professor Takeshi Saito. His poem "The Bells of Heaven" was ranked 85th in the list of Classic FM's One Hundred Favourite Poems. It reflected his deep concerns with ecological matters and with cruelty to animals. One of his closest friends was Henry Salt, for whom he wrote the anti-feather-trade poem, "To Deck A Woman".