Editing Andrew Motion

{{short description|English poet and writer (born 1952)}}
{{Use British English|date=October 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2020}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific_prefix = [[Sir]]
| name             = Andrew Motion
| honorific-suffix = [[Royal Society of Literature|FRSL]]
| image            = Andrew Motion, April 2009.jpg
| imagesize        = 210px
| alt              =
| office           = [[Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom]]
| monarch          = [[Elizabeth II]]
| term_start       = 1 May 1999
| term_end         = 1 May 2009
| predecessor      = [[Ted Hughes]]
| successor        = [[Carol Ann Duffy]]
| caption          = Motion reading poetry in 2009
| pseudonym        =
| birth_name       =
| birth_date       = {{birth date and age|df=yes|1952|10|26}}
| birth_place      = London, England
| death_date       =
| death_place      =
| occupation       = Poet
| nationality      = British
| citizenship      =
| education        = [[Radley College]]
| alma_mater       = [[University College, Oxford]]
| genre            =
| subject          = 
| movement         =
| notableworks     =
| spouse           = {{unbulleted list|Joanna Powell {{font|size=95%|text=({{abbr|div.|divorced}} 1983)}}|{{marriage|Jan Dalley|1985|2009|end=div}}|{{marriage|Kyeong-Soo Kim|2010}}}}
| children         = 3
| relatives        =
| influences       =
| influenced       =
| awards           = 
| signature        =
| signature_alt    =
| website          =
| portaldisp       =
}}

'''Sir Andrew Motion''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|FRSL}} (born 26 October 1952) is an English poet, novelist, and biographer, who was [[Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom|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]].

==Early life==
[[File:Chapel, Radley College, 22-05-2007.jpg|thumb|left|[[Radley College]]]]
Motion was born on 26 October 1952<ref name=Debretts2005>{{cite book|title=Debrett's People of Today 2005|year=2005|edition=18th|isbn=1-870520-10-6|publisher=[[Debrett's]]|page=1176}}</ref> in London, to (Andrew) Richard Michael Motion (1921-2006),<ref name="Essex Clay 2018">''Essex Clay'', Andrew Motion, Faber and Faber, 2018, dedication page.</ref> a brewer at [[Allied Breweries|Ind Coope]],<ref name="independent.co.uk">{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/a-plea-to-the-poet-laureate-743020.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220507/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/a-plea-to-the-poet-laureate-743020.html |archive-date=7 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=A plea to the Poet Laureate|first=Deborah|last=Ross|website=[[Independent.co.uk]]|date=11 October 2011}}{{cbignore}}</ref> and (Catherine) Gillian (née Bakewell; 1928–1978).<ref name="Essex Clay 2018"/><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/authorinterviews/9217384/World-of-Andrew-Motion-poet-novelist-and-biographer.html|title=World of Andrew Motion, poet, novelist and biographer|newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph|The Telegraph]]|first=Angela|last=Wintle|date=20 April 2012 }}</ref><ref>Motion, Andrew, ''Philip Larkin: A Writer's Life'', Faber and Faber, 2018, p. xv, Introduction to the Second Edition.</ref><ref name=Ramblings/> Richard Motion was from a brewing dynasty; his grandfather founded [[Allied Breweries|Taylor Walker]], but by Richard Motion's time this had been absorbed by Ind Coope.<ref name="independent.co.uk"/> The Motion family were wealthy [[armigers]] who lived at [[Upton House, Warwickshire|Upton House]], [[Banbury]], [[Oxfordshire]], and were prominent in the local area; Richard Motion's grandfather Andrew Richard Motion was a [[Magistrate (England and Wales)|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 Essex.<ref>''Armorial Families: A Directory of Gentlemen of coat armour'', seventh edition, A. C. Fox-Davies, Hurst & Blackett Ltd, 1929, vol. II, pp. 1400–1401.</ref><ref>''The Essex Review: An Illustrated Quarterly Record of Everything of Permanent Interest in the County'', collected vols. 41–43, E. Durant & Co., 1932, p. 44.</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.eadt.co.uk/news/mum-s-tragedy-ended-my-childhood-7474658|title = Mum's tragedy ended my childhood|date = 8 September 2006|work=East Anglian Daily Times}}</ref>

As a child, Motion lived in [[Kimpton, Hertfordshire]], and then in [[Hatfield Heath]]. He attended primary school in [[Much Hadham]], before attending [[boarding school]] at [[Maidwell Hall]]<ref name="In the Blood">''In the Blood'', Andrew Motion, Faber and Faber, 2006, p. 83.</ref> from the age of seven,<ref name="poetrymatters"/> joined by his younger brother.
When Motion was 12 years old, the family moved to Glebe House<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.greatbritishlife.co.uk/strolling-around-stisted-6925426|title = Strolling around Stisted| work=Great British Life |date = 13 January 2010}}</ref> at [[Stisted]], near [[Braintree, Essex|Braintree]] in Essex, where Richard Motion's grandparents had previously lived at Stisted Hall, by that time converted into a home for the elderly.<ref>''Burke's and Savill's Guide to Country Houses: East Anglia'', ed. Mark Bence-Jones, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 1981, p. 74.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/gardening-mr-montefiore-s-time-capsule-1616841.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220507/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/gardening-mr-montefiore-s-time-capsule-1616841.html |archive-date=7 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title = GARDENING Mr Montefiore's time capsule|website = [[The Independent]]|date = 22 April 1995}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref>''Burke's Family Index'', ed. Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 1976, p. 111.</ref><ref name=Ramblings/> Most of his friends were from the school and so when Motion was in the village, he spent a lot of time on his own.<ref name=Ramblings/> He began to have an interest and affection for the countryside, and he went for walks with a pet dog.<ref name=Ramblings/> Later he went to [[Radley College]], where, in the [[sixth form]], he encountered Peter Way, an inspiring English teacher who introduced him to poetry – first [[Thomas Hardy]], then [[Philip Larkin]], [[W. H. Auden]], [[Seamus Heaney]], [[Ted Hughes]], [[Wordsworth]] and [[Keats]].<ref name="poetrymatters"/><ref Name="Profile">[https://web.archive.org/web/20110615124138/http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article4748531.ece "Profile: Andrew Motion, the poet laureate"]. ''The Sunday Times''. 14 September 2008.</ref>

When Motion was 17 years old, his mother had a horse-riding accident and suffered a serious head injury requiring a lifesaving [[neurosurgery]] operation. She regained some speech, but she was severely paralysed and remained in and out of coma for nine years.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/5056194/Interview-with-Andrew-Motion.html |title=Interview with Andrew Motion|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|date=30 March 2009|first=Mick |last=Brown}}</ref> She died in 1978 and her husband died of cancer in 2006.<ref name=Ramblings>{{cite episode |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01d2qf6 |title=Ramblings: Inspirational Walks: Sir Andrew Motion |series=Ramblings |network=[[BBC]] |station=[[BBC Radio 4|Radio 4]] |airdate=2012-03-17}}</ref> Motion has said that he wrote to keep his memory of his mother alive.<ref Name= "AM">[http://www.uktouring.org.uk/andrewmotion/books.htm Andrew Motion Official website] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121025232407/http://www.uktouring.org.uk/andrewmotion/books.htm |date=25 October 2012}} Accessed 12 July 2010</ref> When Motion was about 18 years old, he moved away from the village to study English at [[University College, Oxford]];<ref Name= "AM"/> however, since then he has remained in contact with the village to visit the church graveyard, where his parents are buried, and also to see his brother, who lives nearby. At university he studied at weekly sessions with [[W. H. Auden]], whom he greatly admired.<ref Name="Profile"/> Motion won the university's [[Newdigate Prize]] and graduated with a [[British undergraduate degree classification|first-class honours degree]].<ref name=Ramblings/> This was followed by an MLitt on the poetry of [[Edward Thomas (poet)|Edward Thomas]].

==Career==
Between 1976 and 1980, Motion taught English at the [[University of Hull]]<ref Name= "AM"/> and while there, at the age of 24, he had his first volume of poetry published. At Hull, he met the university librarian and poet [[Philip Larkin]]. Motion was later appointed as one of Larkin's literary executors, which would privilege Motion's role as his biographer following Larkin's death in 1985. In ''Philip Larkin: A Writer's Life'', Motion says that at no time during their nine-year friendship did they discuss writing his biography and it was Larkin's longtime companion [[Relationships that influenced Philip Larkin#Monica Jones|Monica Jones]] who requested it. Motion reports how, as executor, he rescued many of Larkin's papers from imminent destruction following his friend's death.<ref>Benton, Michael, Benton ''Literary Biography: An Introduction'' Wiley-Blackwell pp&nbsp;192–200 {{ISBN|1-4051-9446-4}}.</ref> His 1993 biography of Larkin, which won the [[1994 Whitbread Awards|Whitbread Prize for Biography]], was responsible for bringing about a substantial revision of Larkin's reputation.

Motion was editorial director and poetry editor at [[Chatto & Windus]] (1983–89); he edited the [[Poetry Society]]'s ''[[Poetry Review]]'' from 1980 to 1982 and succeeded [[Malcolm Bradbury]] as professor of creative writing at the [[University of East Anglia]].<ref Name= "AM"/> Motion is now on the faculty at the [[Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars]].

===Laureateship===
Motion was appointed Poet Laureate on 1 May 1999, following the death of [[Ted Hughes]], the previous incumbent. The [[Nobel Prize in Literature|Nobel Prize]]–winning Northern Irish poet and translator [[Seamus Heaney]] had ruled himself out for the post. Breaking with the tradition of the laureate retaining the post for life, Motion stipulated that he would stay for only ten years. The yearly stipend of £200 was increased to £5,000 and he received the customary [[Butt (volume)|butt]] of [[Sack (wine)|sack]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Carol Ann Duffy was officially declared as Britain's first female Poet Laureate on May&nbsp;1st 2009. |url=http://www.poetrysociety.org.uk/content/duffy09/poetlaureate/ |url-status=dead |publisher=The Poetry Society |access-date=21 May 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090510115038/http://www.poetrysociety.org.uk/content/duffy09/poetlaureate/ |archive-date=10 May 2009}}</ref> He wanted to write "poems about things in the news, and commissions from people or organisations involved with ordinary life", rather than be seen as a "courtier". So, he wrote "for the [[Trades Union Congress|TUC]] about liberty, about homelessness for [[the Salvation Army]], about bullying for [[ChildLine]], about the [[2001 United Kingdom foot-and-mouth outbreak|foot and mouth outbreak]] for the [[Today (BBC Radio 4)|''Today'' programme]], about the [[Ladbroke Grove rail crash|Paddington rail disaster]], the [[11 September attacks]] and [[Harry Patch]] for the BBC, and more recently about [[Combat stress reaction|shell shock]] for the charity [[Combat Stress]], and climate change for the song cycle he finished for Cambridge University with [[Peter Maxwell Davies]]."<ref name="Lau rels" />

On 14 March 2002, as part of the "Re-weaving Rainbows" event of [[National Science Week]] 2002, Motion unveiled a blue plaque on the front wall of 28 [[St Thomas Street, Southwark|St Thomas Street]], [[Southwark]], to commemorate the sharing of lodgings there by [[John Keats]] and [[Henry Stephens (doctor)|Henry Stephens]] while they were medical students at [[Guy's Hospital|Guy's]] and [[St Thomas' Hospital]] in 1815–16.

In 2003, Motion wrote ''Regime change'', a poem in protest at the [[Invasion of Iraq]] from the point of view of Death walking the streets during the conflict,<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/2912557.stm |title=Poet laureate writes Iraq lament |publisher=BBC News |date=3 April 2003 |access-date=12 October 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/1215.html |title=Regime Change |access-date=12 October 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091015005834/http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/1215.html |archive-date=15 October 2009}}</ref> and in 2005, "Spring Wedding" in honour of the wedding of the [[Prince of Wales]] to [[Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall|Camilla Parker Bowles]]. Commissioned to write in the honour of 109-year-old [[Harry Patch]], the last surviving "[[Tommy Atkins|Tommy]]" to have fought in the [[First World War]], Motion composed a five-part poem, read and received by Patch at the [[Bishop's Palace, Wells|Bishop's Palace]] in [[Wells, Somerset|Wells]] in 2008.<ref>{{cite news|title=Poem honours WWI veteran aged 109|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/somerset/7279861.stm |publisher=BBC News |date=7 March 2008 |access-date=7 March 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080311005302/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/somerset/7279861.stm |archive-date=11 March 2008 |url-status=live}}</ref>

As laureate, he also founded the [[Poetry Archive]], an on-line library of historic and contemporary recordings of poets reciting their own work.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/home.do|title=The Poetry Archive|access-date=12 October 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140519101308/http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/home.do|archive-date=19 May 2014}}</ref>

Motion remarked that he found some of the duties attendant to the post of poet laureate difficult and onerous and that the appointment had been "very, very damaging to [his] work".<ref>{{cite news|title= Laureate bemoans 'thankless' job|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7607897.stm|work=BBC News Online|date=10 September 2008|access-date=10 September 2008| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080910173623/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7607897.stm| archive-date= 10 September 2008 | url-status= live}}</ref> The appointment of Motion met with criticism from some quarters.<ref>{{cite news|title=Andrew Motion to be Poet Laureate|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/may/19/fiachragibbons.michaelwhite|work=The Guardian |date=19 May 1999|access-date=10 September 2008 | location=London | first=Michael | last=White}}</ref> As he prepared to stand down from the job, Motion published an article in ''[[The Guardian]]'' that concluded: "To have had 10 years working as laureate has been remarkable. Sometimes it's been remarkably difficult, the laureate has to take a lot of flak, one way or another. More often it has been remarkably fulfilling. I'm glad I did it, and I'm glad I'm giving it up – especially since I mean to continue working for poetry."<ref name="Lau rels">Motion, Andrew (21 March 2009). [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/mar/21/andrew-motion-poet-laureate "Yet once more, O ye laurels"]. ''The Guardian'', Access date 2009-03-21.</ref><ref>Harper and Sullivan (2009), ''The Creative Environments: Authors at Work''. Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer.</ref>

Motion spent his last day as Poet Laureate holding a creative writing class at his alma mater, [[Radley College]], before giving a poetry reading and thanking Peter Way, the man who taught him English at Radley, for making him who he was. [[Carol Ann Duffy]] succeeded him as Poet Laureate on 1 May 2009.

===Post-laureateship===
Motion is chairman of the Arts Council of England's literature panel (appointed 1996) and is also a Fellow of the [[Royal Society of Literature]].<ref Name= "AM"/> In 2003, he became professor of creative writing at [[Royal Holloway]], [[University of London]].<ref>[http://www.rhul.ac.uk/english/studying/Postgraduate-Study/MA/CreativeWriting.htm Royal Holloway University site] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100609174350/http://www.rhul.ac.uk/english/studying/Postgraduate-Study/MA/CreativeWriting.htm |date=9 June 2010 }}. Accessed 2010-08-17</ref> Since July 2009, Motion has been Chairman of the [[Museums, Libraries and Archives Council]] (MLA) appointed by the [[Department for Culture, Media and Sport]].<ref Name= "AM"/><ref>[http://www.culture.gov.uk/reference_library/media_releases/5237.aspx "Andrew Motion appointed new Chair of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council"], Department for Culture, Media and Sport, 3 July 2008. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090214233100/http://www.culture.gov.uk/reference_library/media_releases/5237.aspx|date=14 February 2009}}</ref> He is also a vice-president of the [[Friends of the British Library]], a charity which provides funding support to the [[British Library]].<ref name="ar0607">{{cite web|url=http://www.bl.uk/supportus/pdf/friendsannrep0607.pdf|title=Friends of the British Library Annual Report 2006/07| access-date=7 September 2009}}</ref> He was [[Knight Bachelor|knighted]] in the 2009 Queen's Birthday Honours list.<ref Name= "AM"/> He has been a member of [[English Heritage]]'s Blue Plaques Panel since 2008.

Motion was selected as jury chair for the [[Man Booker Prize]] 2010<ref>[http://www.themanbookerprize.com/prize/thisyear/judges "Man Booker 2010 judges"], The Man Booker Prizes, 9 December 2009. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100103002735/http://www.themanbookerprize.com/prize/thisyear/judges|date=3 January 2010}}</ref><ref>{{London Gazette|issue=59090 |date=13 June 2009 |page=1 |supp=y}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8097237.stm|title=BBC News|date=12 June 2009|access-date=12 October 2014}}</ref> and in March 2010, he announced that he was working with publishers [[Jonathan Cape]] on a sequel to [[Robert Louis Stevenson]]'s ''[[Treasure Island]]''. Entitled ''Silver'', the story is set a generation on from the original book and was published in March 2012.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/8588371.stm|title=Sir Andrew Motion to write Treasure Island sequel |date=26 March 2010|work=BBC News|access-date=26 March 2010| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100329135349/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/8588371.stm| archive-date= 29 March 2010 | url-status= live}}</ref> In July 2010, Motion returned to [[Kingston-upon-Hull]] for the annual ''Humber Mouth'' literature festival and taking part in the [[Larkin 25]] festival commemorating the 25th anniversary of [[Philip Larkin]]'s death. In his capacity as Larkin's biographer and as a former lecturer in English at the [[University of Hull]], Motion named an [[East Yorkshire Motor Services]] bus ''Philip Larkin''.<ref>''Yorkshire Evening Post'' 6 July 2010 [http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/localnews/Buses-are-fare-way-to.6403079.jp "Buses are fare way to celebrate city poet"] (Retrieved 7 July 2010)</ref><ref>[http://www.larkin25.co.uk/news.php Larkin 25. 7 July 2010. ''Welcome aboard the Philip Larkin bus!'' ](Retrieved 12 July 2010)</ref> Motion's debut play ''[[Incoming (play)|Incoming]]'', about the war in Afghanistan, premièred at the High Tides Festival in [[Halesworth]], Suffolk, in May 2011.<ref>{{cite news |url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/theatre-news/8335508/Andrew-Motion-to-debut-as-playwright-with-work-about-Afghanistan.html |title=Andrew Motion to debut as playwright with work about Afghanistan - Telegraph |first=Roya |last=Nikkhah |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |date=20 February 2010 |location=[[London, UK|London]] |issn=0307-1235 |oclc=49632006}}</ref> Motion also featured in ''[[Jamie's Dream School]]'' in 2011 as the poetry teacher.

In June 2012, he became the President of the [[Campaign to Protect Rural England]]. In March 2014, he was elected an Honorary Fellow at [[Homerton College, Cambridge]].

Motion won the 2015 [[Ted Hughes Award]] for new work in poetry for the radio programme ''Coming Home''. The production featured poetry by Motion based on recordings he made of British soldiers returning from the wars in [[Iraq]] and [[Afghanistan]].<ref>{{cite news|first=Mark|last=Brown|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/apr/02/andrew-motion-wins-ted-hughes-award-poetry-returning-soldiers |title=Andrew Motion wins Ted Hughes award for poetry work about returning soldiers|newspaper=The Guardian|date=2 April 2015}}</ref>

In 2017, Motion moved to [[Baltimore, Maryland]], to take up a post at the [[Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars|Writing Seminars]] as a Homewood Professor of the Arts at [[Johns Hopkins University]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://hub.jhu.edu/at-work/2016/01/11/andrew-motion|title= British poet Andrew Motion settles into life in America as a professor at Johns Hopkins|publisher=Johns Hopkins University|first=Bret |last=McCabe|date=11 January 2015|access-date=8 July 2017}}</ref>

==Work==
Motion has said of himself: "My wish to write a poem is inseparable from my wish to explain something to myself." His work combines lyrical and narrative aspects in a "postmodern-romantic sensibility".<ref Name="BC"/> Motion says that he aims to write in clear language without tricks.<ref Name="BC"/>

''[[The Independent]]'' describes the stalwart poet as the "charming and tireless defender of the art form".<ref name="poetrymatters">{{cite news|first=Christina|last=Patterson|author-link=Christina Patterson|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/andrew-motion-poetry-needs-us-to-say-that-it-matters-1669470.html|title=Andrew Motion: 'Poetry needs us to say that it matters'|newspaper=The Independent|date= 17 April 2009|access-date= 18 July 2010}}</ref> Motion has won the [[Arvon Foundation|Arvon]] Prize, the [[John Llewellyn Rhys Prize]], [[Eric Gregory Award]], [[1994 Whitbread Awards|Whitbread Prize for Biography]] and the [[Dylan Thomas Prize]].<ref Name= "AM"/><ref Name="BC">{{cite web|url=http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth76 |title=British Council Biography |access-date=12 October 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071001130129/http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth76 |archive-date=1 October 2007 }}</ref>

Motion took part in the [[Bush Theatre]]'s 2011 project ''[[Sixty-Six Books]]'', writing and performing a piece based upon a book of the ''[[King James Version|King James Bible]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bushtheatre.co.uk/biography/writers/ |title=Bush Theatre |access-date=12 October 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110704090950/http://www.bushtheatre.co.uk/biography/writers/ |archive-date=4 July 2011 }}</ref>

==Personal life==
Motion's marriage to Joanna Powell ended in 1983.<ref>{{cite news|first=Lewis|last=Jones|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/andrew-motion-poetic-licence-to-thrill-413487.html |title=Andrew Motion: Poetic licence to thrill|newspaper=The Independent|date= 27 August 2006}}</ref> He was married to Jan Dalley from 1985 to 2009, divorcing after a seven-year separation. They had one son born in 1986 and twins, a son and a daughter, born in 1988. In 2010, he married Kyeong-Soo Kim. He currently lives part of the year in Baltimore, Maryland, in the United States.

==Selected honours and awards==
* 1975: won the [[Newdigate prize]] for Oxford undergraduate poetry
* 1976: [[Eric Gregory Award]]
* 1981: wins [[Arvon Foundation]]'s International Poetry Competition with ''The Letter''
* 1984:  [[John Llewellyn Rhys Prize]] for ''Dangerous Play: Poems 1974–1984''
* 1987: [[Somerset Maugham Award]] for ''The Lamberts''
* 1987:  [[Dylan Thomas Prize]] for ''Natural Causes''
* 1999: appointed [[Poet Laureate]] for ten years
* 1994: ''Philip Larkin: A Writer’s Life'', [[1994 Whitbread Awards|Whitbread Prize for Biography]]
* 2009:  [[Knight Bachelor]]
* 2014:  Wilfred Owen Poetry Award

==Bibliography==
{{Incomplete list|date=July 2018}}

=== Poetry ===
;Poems
* 1972: ''Goodnestone: A Sequence'' (in ''Workshop Poets No. 7''), Workshop Press
* 1976: ''Inland'', Cygnet Press

;Collections
* 1978: ''The Pleasure Steamers'', Carcanet
* 1981: ''Independence'', Salamander Press
* 1983: ''Secret Narratives'', Salamander Press
* 1984: ''Dangerous Play: Poems 1974–1984'', Salamander Press / Penguin
* 1987: ''Natural Causes'', Chatto & Windus
* 1988: ''Two Poems'', Words Ltd
* 1991: ''Love in a Life'', Faber and Faber
* 1994: ''The Price of Everything'', Faber and Faber
* 1997: ''Salt Water'', Faber and Faber
* 1998: ''Selected Poems 1976–1997'', Faber and Faber
* 2001: ''A Long Story'', The Old School Press
* 2002: ''Public Property'', Faber and Faber
* 2009: ''The Cinder Path'', Faber and Faber
* 2012: ''The Customs House'', Faber and Faber
* 2015: ''Peace Talks'', Faber and Faber
* 2015: ''Coming Home'', Fine Press Poetry
* 2017: ''Coming in to Land: Selected Poems, 1975–2015'', Ecco Press
* 2018: ''Essex Clay'', Faber and Faber
* 2020: ''Randomly Moving Particles'', Faber and Faber

;List of poems
{|class='wikitable sortable' width='90%'
|-
!width=25%|Title
!|Year
!|First published
!|Reprinted/collected
|-
|A Cabbage White
|2018
|{{cite journal |author=Motion, Andrew |date=22 February 2018 |title=A Cabbage White |journal=The New York Review of Books |volume=65 |issue=3 |pages=18}}
|
|-
|Chincoteague
|2018
|{{cite journal |author=Motion, Andrew |date=22 February 2018 |title=Chincoteague |journal=The New York Review of Books |volume=65 |issue=3 |pages=24}}
|
|-
|}

===Criticism===
* 1980: ''The Poetry of [[Edward Thomas (poet)|Edward Thomas]]''.   Routledge & Kegan Paul
* 1982: ''[[Philip Larkin]]''. (Contemporary Writers series) Methuen
* 1986: ''[[Elizabeth Bishop]]. (Chatterton Lectures on an English Poet)''
* 1998: ''Sarah Raphael: Strip!''. Marlborough Fine Art (London)
* 2008: ''Ways of Life: On Places, Painters and Poets''. Faber and Faber

===Biography===
* 1986: ''The Lamberts: [[George Washington Lambert|George]], [[Constant Lambert|Constant]] and [[Kit Lambert|Kit]]''. Chatto & Windus
* 1993: ''[[Philip Larkin]]: A Writer's Life''. Faber and Faber
* 1997: ''[[John Keats|Keats]]: A Biography''. Faber and Faber

===Memoirs===
* 2006: ''In the Blood: A Memoir of my Childhood''. Faber and Faber

===Fiction===
* 1989: ''The Pale Companion''. Penguin
* 1991: ''Famous for the Creatures''. Viking
* 2003: ''The Invention of Dr Cake''. Faber and Faber
* 2000: ''Wainewright the Poisoner: The Confessions of [[Thomas Griffiths Wainewright]]'' ([[biographical novel]])
* 2012: ''[[Silver (Motion novel)|Silver]]''. Jonathan Cape
* 2015: ''The New World''. Crown

===Edited works, introductions, and forewords===
* 1981: ''Selected Poems: [[William Barnes]]''. Penguin Classics
* 1982: ''The Penguin Book of Contemporary British Poetry'' with [[Blake Morrison]]. Penguin
* 1994: ''[[Thomas Hardy]]: Selected Poems''. Dent
* 1993: ''New Writing 2'' (With [[Malcolm Bradbury]]). Minerva in association with the British Council
* 1994: ''New Writing 3'' (With Candice Rodd). Minerva in association with the British Council
* 1997: ''Penguin Modern Poets: Volume 11'' with [[Michael Donaghy]] and [[Hugo Williams]]. Penguin
* 1998: ''Take 20: New Writing''. University of East Anglia
* 1999: ''Verses of the Poets Laureate: From [[John Dryden]] to Andrew Motion''. With Hilary Laurie. Orion.
* 1999: ''Babel: New Writing by the University of East Anglia's MA Writers''. University of East Anglia.
* 2001: ''Firsthand: The New Anthology of Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia''. University of East Anglia
* 2002: ''Paper Scissors Stone: New Writing from the MA in Creative Writing at [[University of East Anglia|UEA]]''. University of East Anglia.
* 2001: ''The Creative Writing Coursebook: Forty Authors Share Advice and Exercises for Fiction & Poetry''. With Julia Bell. Macmillan
* 2000: ''[[John Keats]]: Poems Selected by Andrew Motion''. Faber and Faber
* 2001: ''Here to Eternity: An Anthology of Poetry''. Faber and Faber
* 2002: ''[[May Anthologies|The Mays Literary Anthology]]''; Guest editor. Varsity Publications
* 2003: ''101 Poems Against War''. Faber and Faber (Afterword)
* 2003: ''First World War Poems''. Faber and Faber
* 2006: ''Collins Rhyming Dictionary''. Collins
* 2007: ''Bedford Square 2: New Writing from the Royal Holloway Creative Writing Programme''. John Murray Ltd.

==References==

{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Andrew Motion}}
{{Wikiquote}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20071013180229/http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/singlePoet.do?poetId=212 Profile and poems written and audio] at the Poetry Archive
* [http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/2096 Profile at Poets.org]
* [http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/saction.php?search=ss&firstRun=true&sText=%22andrew+motion%22 National Portrait Gallery portraits]
* {{British council|id=andrew-motion|name=Professor Andrew Motion}}
* [[John Crace (writer)|John Crace]], [https://www.theguardian.com/education/2005/dec/13/highereducationprofile.highereducation?INTCMP=SRCH Profile | "Andrew Motion: Mr Speaker"], ''The Guardian'', 13 December 2005. 
* Richard Lea and Christian Bennett, [https://www.theguardian.com/books/video/2009/apr/27/andrew-motion-poetry?INTCMP=SRCH "Andrew Motion on war poetry"], ''The Guardian'',  27 July 2009. Interview and reading (Video, 8 mins).
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/audiointerviews/profilepages/motiona1.shtml BBC] profile. [https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/andrew-motion-on-being-poet-laureate/6957.html BBC interview] "Andrew Motion on being Poet Laureate" (Video, 4 mins). [https://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/objects/1DxnakmMR96M_jQOhA_BJw BBC interview] "Andrew Motion's Hindu Wood Carving" (Video 4 mins)
* [http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/542409.html A chapter] from ''Keats,'' about John Keats, Fanny Brawne, and his poem for her, "Bright Star"
* {{YouTube|id=w54DO8PHzSw|title=Bonfire of the Humanities}}, Andrew Motion's Romanes Lecture (2011) at Oxford University (video)
*[http://searcharchives.bl.uk/IAMS_VU2:IAMS032-001955838 Papers of Andrew Motion] at the British Library

{{s-start}}
{{s-npo}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Bill Bryson]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=President of the [[Campaign to Protect Rural England]]|years=2012–2016}}
{{s-aft|after= [[Emma Bridgewater (businessperson)|Emma Bridgewater]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{Poets Laureate of the United Kingdom}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Motion, Andrew}}
[[Category:1952 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:20th-century English novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century English poets]]
[[Category:20th-century English biographers]]
[[Category:20th-century English male writers]]
[[Category:21st-century English novelists]]
[[Category:21st-century English poets]]
[[Category:21st-century English biographers]]
[[Category:21st-century English male writers]]
[[Category:Academics of Royal Holloway, University of London]]
[[Category:Academics of the University of East Anglia]]
[[Category:Academics of the University of Hull]]
[[Category:Alumni of University College, Oxford]]
[[Category:British poets laureate]]
[[Category:English book editors]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature]]
[[Category:Knights Bachelor]]
[[Category:People educated at Radley College]]
[[Category:People from Braintree, Essex]]
[[Category:The New York Review of Books people]]