Kit Wright

Kit Wright is one of the most acclaimed and adored of poets for children. He is best known for his comic verse, but equally adept at tackling more sombre themes and potentially difficult subjects. He is also a much-praised anthologist.

THE BASICS

Born: Kent, 1944
Jobs: Teacher, Education Officer for The Poetry Society
Lives: London
First Book for Young People: Arthur's Father, 1978

THE BOOKS

Kit Wright's father Ronald was a schoolmaster who loved literature and enjoyed writing light-hearted verse. Kit was encouraged to read and write voraciously. He started writing poetry at the tender age of six and continued throughout his time at Berkhamsted School. When he was seventeen, Kit met the poet Vernon Scannell, who influenced him greatly - "he didn't like what I'd written much, but he could see something in it... he introduced me to other writers and was abrasive about famous poets."

Kit had started to read young contemporary poets like Ted Hughes - "the poems were electric - I thought the most interesting thing in life was poetry." He continued to write whilst studying English at New College, Oxford. His contemporaries there included Craig Raine. Both Wright and Raine suffered doubts about their poetic ability - "We were very intense... overwrought with critical theory. We practised our fierce, embryonic powers of criticism on ourselves, almost before we had let ourselves speak."

After a brief spell teaching in a South London Comprehensive, Kit headed off to Canada, where he spent three years teaching English at Brock University, Ontario. On his return to England in 1970, Kit started working for The Poetry Society as Education Officer. Meanwhile, several of his poems were published in literary magazines.

Kit's first collection of poetry for adults, The Bear Looked Over the Mountain was published in 1974. In 1975, he began working as a freelance writer, living by "the pen and the feet." In 1977, he went to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he spent three years as Creative Writing Fellow.

Kit's first collection of poetry for children, Arthur's Father, followed in 1978. He quickly established himself as one of the most able poets for children around. In the words of TES, "among children's writers he has perhaps the finest ear for poetry's rhythms and cadences." Michael Glover, in Twentieth Century Children's Writers, compares Wright's "manic exuberance" to that of Lewis Carroll - "as if the desire to crack yet another joke in the poem, to add one more crowning pun to the puns that are already there, simply cannot be resisted."

Kit is not only a comic poet. Morag Styles points to a strand of his work that is "introspective, sensitive, thought-provoking and serious". For evidence of Kit's dexterity with potentially difficult issues, check out "Useful Person" in Hot Dog and Other Poems.

Kit was one of the first poets to make regular trips in to schools. His own favourite poets include Shakespeare, Sir Thomas Wyatt ("They flee from me that some time they did seek") and some of Blake ("there's also some rubbish in the prophetic books").

WHAT HE SAYS...

"One of the things I like about verse is that there are so many ways it can be written. Available to anyone is a huge variety of tunes and methods, shapes and rhythms, patterns and intentions. And there's this extra feature: whatever you set out to make is unlikely to be quite what you end up with; if your poem works, with a bit of luck it will surprise not only your readers but yourself."

"Poems are products of imagination, intelligence and feeling; in another way they are also strange machines which fulfil a function. They do something: tell a story, sing a song, paint a world, make a statement. And sometimes they do all those things together.""I think so highly of poetry that I've dedicated my life to it. It's the most important thing to me."

WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT KIT WRIGHT...

"Kit Wright's poetry for children has an exuberance, a vitality, and a technical virtuosity that works equally well on the page or when read aloud." Twentieth Century Children's Writers

"One of the most able poets for children around is Kit Wright." The Independent

"Among children's writers he has perhaps the finest ear for poetry's rhythms and cadences." TES

"A dexterous craftsman as well as a comedian... his poems consistently ask children to stretch both their imaginations and their sympathies." TLS

"One of the delicious pleasures in reading Kit Wright's poems, especially for younger readers, is their slightly subversive lack of propriety." Morag Styles

"His work never hesitates to come delightfully close to nonsense, while making its satirical message clear." Independent on Sunday

"Kit Wright is one of a handful of poets whose books I always open with confidence." Books For Your Children

"Enchanting... will cause rapturous giggles as well as encouraging a sense of word play and imagery that no home should be without." Daily Telegraph on Cat Among the Pigeons

"There isn't a single flat poem in Kit Wright's new collection... he's funny too... clever, nimble and moving. Above all, his poetic generosity refuses to consider serious subjects as out of bounds just because he's writing for a young audience." Douglas Dunn, Evening Standard on Cat Among the Pigeons"Kit Wright relishes words' sounds and meanings, playing with language as only one who knows his craft can. He exploits its ambiguity and its exactness, satisfying poetry lovers of all ages." TES on Great Snakes

"The poet's consummate skill with rhyme and metre is evident on every page." Junior EducationGreat Snakes

"When I find a collection as funny and as sparkling as this, I don't tell a soul. I hide it away in my jacket pocket and wait with a knowing smile for the next wet Friday afternoon." Books For Keeps on Great Snakes