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| Gerard Benson obituary | Gerard Benson obituary |
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| The poet Gerard Benson, who has died aged 83, published 10 volumes of poems and prize-winning collections for children; an autobiography, Memoirs of a Jobbing Poet, is to be published this summer. When I founded Poems on the Underground, Gerard was my ally, along with a fellow "Barrow Poet", Cicely Herbert. We worked together closely for almost 30 years, offering a wide range of poetry to a mass audience. He believed passionately that the arts should be accessible to all. | The poet Gerard Benson, who has died aged 83, published 10 volumes of poems and prize-winning collections for children; an autobiography, Memoirs of a Jobbing Poet, is to be published this summer. When I founded Poems on the Underground, Gerard was my ally, along with a fellow "Barrow Poet", Cicely Herbert. We worked together closely for almost 30 years, offering a wide range of poetry to a mass audience. He believed passionately that the arts should be accessible to all. |
| Earlier this year, Gerard recorded his poems for the digital Poetry Archive, opening with a typically wry sonnet headed "Beginning": | Earlier this year, Gerard recorded his poems for the digital Poetry Archive, opening with a typically wry sonnet headed "Beginning": |
| Believe me, I hadn't asked to be born, but still I pressed head-first toward the light … Adventure, sorrow, puzzlement, delight were waiting. I pushed on through, breathed air, then wailed – and so again began. | Believe me, I hadn't asked to be born, but still I pressed head-first toward the light … Adventure, sorrow, puzzlement, delight were waiting. I pushed on through, breathed air, then wailed – and so again began. |
| There's a distinct touch of Samuel Beckett, for whom Gerard felt a strong affinity. Adventure there was in plenty; sorrow and delight just about balancing out. | There's a distinct touch of Samuel Beckett, for whom Gerard felt a strong affinity. Adventure there was in plenty; sorrow and delight just about balancing out. |
| The collection includes a sonnet sequence about Gerard's troubled childhood. He was born in Golders Green, north London, to a young Irish schoolteacher who arranged to have the illegitimate infant fostered. For his first 10 years Gerard lived with a family of Christian fundamentalists, whom he believed to be his parents. It was a time of "punishments, an absence of love". Glamorous "Auntie Eileen" visited at weekends. This strange double life was interrupted by the second world war and evacuation to Norfolk. When he returned to London, Eileen was no longer "Auntie" but "Mum"; married to a Romanian composer, Francis Chagrin. Gerard Smith became Gerard Chagrin, and entered a world of artists, writers and musicians. | The collection includes a sonnet sequence about Gerard's troubled childhood. He was born in Golders Green, north London, to a young Irish schoolteacher who arranged to have the illegitimate infant fostered. For his first 10 years Gerard lived with a family of Christian fundamentalists, whom he believed to be his parents. It was a time of "punishments, an absence of love". Glamorous "Auntie Eileen" visited at weekends. This strange double life was interrupted by the second world war and evacuation to Norfolk. When he returned to London, Eileen was no longer "Auntie" but "Mum"; married to a Romanian composer, Francis Chagrin. Gerard Smith became Gerard Chagrin, and entered a world of artists, writers and musicians. |
| It should have been a fine new adventure, but more troubles followed: conflicts with teachers, counselling at the Tavistock Clinic, and boarding school. National service meant two years in the Royal Navy as an intelligence coder in Gibraltar – congenial work for a lover of words and puzzles. In London again, a row with Eileen ended with Gerard leaving home and adopting the surname of the father on his birth certificate: Arthur Bayard Benson. | It should have been a fine new adventure, but more troubles followed: conflicts with teachers, counselling at the Tavistock Clinic, and boarding school. National service meant two years in the Royal Navy as an intelligence coder in Gibraltar – congenial work for a lover of words and puzzles. In London again, a row with Eileen ended with Gerard leaving home and adopting the surname of the father on his birth certificate: Arthur Bayard Benson. |
| So it was as Gerard Benson that he began a chequered period as an actor, student – he attended Exeter University for a year – clerk, porter and in other part-time jobs. High points were evening drama classes with Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop and a tour as assistant stage manager with a play, Lilac Time, based on Schubert's tunes. | So it was as Gerard Benson that he began a chequered period as an actor, student – he attended Exeter University for a year – clerk, porter and in other part-time jobs. High points were evening drama classes with Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop and a tour as assistant stage manager with a play, Lilac Time, based on Schubert's tunes. |
| A year's teacher-training at the Central School for Speech and Drama, London, led to 20 years as a member of staff, teaching voice production, diction and verse-speaking. Gerard joined the Barrow Poets, who took their anarchic programmes to pubs and village halls, with appearances on radio and TV, Gerard excelling on the kazoo. | A year's teacher-training at the Central School for Speech and Drama, London, led to 20 years as a member of staff, teaching voice production, diction and verse-speaking. Gerard joined the Barrow Poets, who took their anarchic programmes to pubs and village halls, with appearances on radio and TV, Gerard excelling on the kazoo. |
| His personal life remained chaotic. A divorce from his first wife was followed by marriage to the pianist Judith Ososki and the birth of two children, Oliver and Lucy. What had started as a great romance broke up disastrously. Gerard struggled with alcoholism, though he finally conquered it. He brought up the children, taught and wrote. Happier times included workshops at the Welsh centres Celmi and Ty Newydd, regular stints at Aldeburgh, and British Council residencies in Kenya, Egypt and Norway. | His personal life remained chaotic. A divorce from his first wife was followed by marriage to the pianist Judith Ososki and the birth of two children, Oliver and Lucy. What had started as a great romance broke up disastrously. Gerard struggled with alcoholism, though he finally conquered it. He brought up the children, taught and wrote. Happier times included workshops at the Welsh centres Celmi and Ty Newydd, regular stints at Aldeburgh, and British Council residencies in Kenya, Egypt and Norway. |
| Gerard had passions for chess, cricket and jazz, and was also a devoted "comper", entering the back-page competitions of the weeklies using a series of aliases: Anne P Rogers, Jedediah Barrow, CJD Doyle. He subscribed to Nemo's Almanac and eventually edited it. | Gerard had passions for chess, cricket and jazz, and was also a devoted "comper", entering the back-page competitions of the weeklies using a series of aliases: Anne P Rogers, Jedediah Barrow, CJD Doyle. He subscribed to Nemo's Almanac and eventually edited it. |
| He also had a strong ethical drive. He ran writing workshops for psychiatric patients, prisoners and disabled people. He was a valiant peace campaigner, marching at Aldermaston and the million-strong London protest against the Iraq war, and becoming in his late years a Quaker. | He also had a strong ethical drive. He ran writing workshops for psychiatric patients, prisoners and disabled people. He was a valiant peace campaigner, marching at Aldermaston and the million-strong London protest against the Iraq war, and becoming in his late years a Quaker. |
| The true happiness of Gerard's later life came with his marriage in 1984 to Catherine Russell, an illustrator and fellow poet. They moved to Bradford, where Gerard was appointed the city's first poet laureate. Oliver died in 2006 in Thailand, but somehow Gerard remained optimistic, sane, an active teacher, reader and writer. | |
| He is survived by Cathy and his daughter, Lucy. Judith Chernaik | He is survived by Cathy and his daughter, Lucy. Judith Chernaik |
| Michael Rosen writes: I first heard Gerard without knowing that I heard him, when my parents played recordings of the Barrow Poets. This must have been in the late 1950s or early 60s and I remember how this group of performers shared poems across their voices, moving from solo to chorus and back, creating a dynamic that you couldn't hear anywhere else at the time. Their performance of Thomas Love Peacock's Three Men of Gotham became a family favourite in our house, with Gerard's mysterious and lugubrious tone echoing: "And our ballast is old wine". The tongue-twister about the pheasant plucker's son was legendary. | Michael Rosen writes: I first heard Gerard without knowing that I heard him, when my parents played recordings of the Barrow Poets. This must have been in the late 1950s or early 60s and I remember how this group of performers shared poems across their voices, moving from solo to chorus and back, creating a dynamic that you couldn't hear anywhere else at the time. Their performance of Thomas Love Peacock's Three Men of Gotham became a family favourite in our house, with Gerard's mysterious and lugubrious tone echoing: "And our ballast is old wine". The tongue-twister about the pheasant plucker's son was legendary. |
| At the time, I didn't know who was acting out these lines and I didn't meet Gerard until many years later. He was doing what he was always so brilliant at, performing poetry, encouraging other poets and working with children to help them write and enjoy poetry. | At the time, I didn't know who was acting out these lines and I didn't meet Gerard until many years later. He was doing what he was always so brilliant at, performing poetry, encouraging other poets and working with children to help them write and enjoy poetry. |
| Among his collections of poetry that I know and have enjoyed are The Magnificent Callisto (1992); Evidence of Elephants (1995); and To Catch an Elephant (2002). All three are delightful, funny and thoughtful ways of exploring how a poet can play with the world through language. A collection he edited, This Poem Doesn't Rhyme (1990), is a unique book of poems for young children, to help them discover free and blank verse. There aren't many books for children that range from the words of John Wesley to Bob Cobbing via Beowulf, Tennyson and Kurt Schwitters. Gerard knew his stuff and wanted to share it. | Among his collections of poetry that I know and have enjoyed are The Magnificent Callisto (1992); Evidence of Elephants (1995); and To Catch an Elephant (2002). All three are delightful, funny and thoughtful ways of exploring how a poet can play with the world through language. A collection he edited, This Poem Doesn't Rhyme (1990), is a unique book of poems for young children, to help them discover free and blank verse. There aren't many books for children that range from the words of John Wesley to Bob Cobbing via Beowulf, Tennyson and Kurt Schwitters. Gerard knew his stuff and wanted to share it. |
| • Gerard Benson, poet, born 9 April 1931; died 28 April 2014 | • Gerard Benson, poet, born 9 April 1931; died 28 April 2014 |