Jenny Joseph

Jenny Joseph (b. 1932 – d. 2018) was originally from Birmingham but her first remembered home was in leafy Buckinghamshire. She read English at St Hilda’s College Oxford. A variety of occupations included being a newspaper reporter, lecturer in language and literature and landlady of a London pub. Her poems were first published when she was at university at the beginning of the 1950’s, her first book, The Unlooked-for Season, appearing in 1960. This collection won a Gregory Award whilst her second, Rose in the Afternoon, was recognised by a Cholmondeley Award. In 1992 the bulk of her first four books of poems was reprinted in Selected Poems by Bloodaxe Books and it’s from this volume that the poems she chose for her Archive recording are taken. Her varied output included poetry for children as well as adults, books that combine prose and poetry (Persephone) and different forms of prose fictions (Extended Similes). She collaborated with photographers (Beached Boats), painters, musicians, actors and dancers, and worked with speakers of poetry and voice teachers to encourage the learning and speaking of poetry. (Source)