Tony Harrison, one of Britain’s leading poets, was born in Leeds in 1937 and studied Classics at Leeds University. In recent years he has been much involved with writing and translating for theatre. His version of The Oresteia, performed by the National Theatre in 1981, was the first translated work to be presented by a visiting company at the ancient Greek Theatre of Epidaurus. His Selected Poems is published by Penguin.

Tony Harrison also introduced E. Powys Mathers’s Black Marigolds and Coloured Stars.