Biographical Overview & Key Facts

Subject:

Andrew Motion

Role / Field:

Acclaimed English poet, novelist, and former Poet Laureate.

Born:

1952-10-26

Century / Era:

1952s Historical Era

Database Source:

2Day Chrono-Wiki & Wikipedia CC BY-SA 4.0

Origins & Early Life

Sir Andrew Motion (born 26 October 1952) 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. In 2012, he became President of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, taking over from Bill Bryson. Motion was born on 26 October 1952 in London, to (Andrew) Richard Michael Motion (1921–2006), a brewer at Ind Coope, and (Catherine) Gillian (née Bakewell; 1928–1978).

Pivotal Works & Achievements

Richard Motion was from a brewing dynasty; his grandfather founded Taylor Walker, but by Richard Motion's time this had been absorbed by Ind Coope. The Motion family were wealthy armigers who lived at Upton House, Banbury, Oxfordshire, and were prominent in the local area; Richard Motion's grandfather Andrew Richard Motion was a Justice of the Peace for Essex, Oxfordshire and Warwickshire, who had worked his way up from being a brewery labourer in the East End of London to ownership of his own successful brewery. When his children had grown up and married, he sold the Upton House estate and went to live at Stisted Hall, in...

Enduring Legacy & Impact

The historical impact and works continue to influence the modern world.

Contemporary Figures & Related Historical Timelines

• Adi Shamir — Contemporary (Born in 1952) (1952): Pioneering Israeli cryptographer, co-inventor of the RSA algorithm.
• Albert Bassermann — Contemporary (Died in 1952) (1952): Esteemed German stage and screen actor, celebrated for his dramatic versatility.
• Alexandra Kollontai — Contemporary (Died in 1952) (1952): Pioneering Marxist feminist, diplomat, and Bolshevik leader in early Soviet history.
• Abby Aldrich Rockefeller — Shared historical date (10-26 · Born) (1874): American socialite and influential philanthropist, key patron of modern art.
• Akashi Motojiro — Shared historical date (10-26 · Died) (1919): General in the Imperial Japanese Army and Governor-General of Taiwan.
• Amy Tan — Historical peer (Born in 1952) (1952): Acclaimed American novelist celebrated for exploring Chinese-American family dynamics.
• Angela Strank — Historical peer (Born in 1952) (1952): British engineer and Chief Scientist at BP, specializing in downstream technology.
• Akhtar Hameed Khan — Historical peer (Died in 1999) (1999): Pioneering Pakistani social scientist and development practitioner.
• Akio Morita — Historical peer (Died in 1999) (1999): Visionary Japanese entrepreneur and co-founder of Sony.
• Aage Bohr — Historical peer (Died in 2009) (2009): Pioneering Danish nuclear physicist, Nobel laureate for atomic structure theory.
• 1952 Historical Timeline & Archive — Explore world events and figures from 1952
• October 26 (10-26) On This Day — Historical birthdays and events on October 26

Frequently Asked Questions about Andrew Motion