Thomas Love Peacock was an English poet and novelist whose work was mostly of a satirical nature. During his younger years he preferred to spend much of his time out of doors, basically communing with nature. For example, at the age of 21, he took a whole year out from his job in the financial district of London to explore Scotland on foot. ...
Thomas Lovell Beddoes was a curious character whose short life spanned the first half of the 19th century, thus causing him to be referred to, in some literary circles, as "the last Elizabethan” who might be distinguished from other writers of the time by the "quality of his expression”. He was a poet and dramatist and some have called him a great ...
If you could pick an “establishment” character to personify all that was great about England and the British Empire during the Victorian and Edwardian eras it would probably be Sir Henry Newbolt. Although his domestic life flew in the face of “normality”, he was the archetypal English gentleman who stood up for traditional values in behaviour and standards. As a poet ...
Patrick MacGill came from County Donegal, a part of Ireland that has, through history, produced a number of poets and artists. Perhaps it is the romantic nature of the landscape that inspires people to write about it or draw what they see. MacGill rose from humble beginnings to become a revered Irish poet. He is commonly known as "The Navvy Poet" due to ...
One of the great figures in the revival of literature in Ireland, Padraic Colum was born in County Longford in 1881. His father worked in a workhouse for the first 9 years of Colum’s life but then lost his job, prompting him to race to America to take part in the much vaunted gold rush at the time. The rest of ...
