born Aug. 28, 1906, London, Eng.
died May 19, 1984, Trebetherick, Cornwall
English poet.
His poetry volumes include Mount Zion (1933), High and Low (1966), and A Nip in the Air (1974), and his prose works include guidebooks to English counties and essays on places and buildings. His nostalgia for the near past, his exact sense of place, and his precise rendering of social nuance made him widely read at a time when much of what he wrote about was vanishing. From 1972 until his death he served as poet laureate of England.