Queen makes Bromsgrove poet a knight to remember

Buy photos » Geoffrey Hill was knighted in the New Year’s Honours list. s

A BROMSGROVE poet has been knighted in the New Year Honours list.

Geoffrey Hill, Oxford University’s Professor of Poetry, became a ‘Sir’ after being recognised for his contribution to poetry.

Although relatively unknown in Bromsgrove, the town where he was born, he is well-regarded in the poetry world.

Sir Geoffrey grew up in Fairfield where his father was village policeman and he attended Bromsgrove County High School, which is now North Bromsgrove High School. His grandmother worked as a nailer, hand-making nails in Lickey End.

He studied at Keble College, Oxford, and then undertook an academic career, with posts in Leeds and Cambridge, before going to America’s Boston University.

Sir Geoffrey has published more than 12 poetry books and his work can also be seen in ‘Three Bromsgrove Poets’, a book which also features Molly Holden and AE Housman.

Robin Shaw, the vice-chairman of The Housman Society, described Geoffrey Hill as ‘one of Bromsgrove’s best-kept secrets’.

He said Sir Geoffrey’s poems were not easily understandable, but were known to relate to his childhood in the town, which he hailed as a paradise - as shown by this extract: “I wish greatly to believe; that Bromsgrove was, and is, Goldengrove; that the Orchards of Syon stand as I once glimpsed them.”

Literary critics have also described the 79-year-old as ‘the greatest living poet in the English language’.