How Tony Harrison gave this lass the confidence she needed | Letters

An encouraging note from the poet to a young working-class student is remembered by Dr Chrissie Tiller. Plus a letter from Brian AllenAfter reading your moving obituary of Tony Harrison (28 September), tributes to him from Ian McMillan and others (Classics with added Yorkshire class, 28 September), and the article by Mark Lawson (‘The man who came to read the metre’: Yorkshire poet Tony Harrison was the National Theatre bard, 27 September), I’d like to add a personal postscript.As a visiting poet, Tony became my tutor for my final year at Newcastle University (1969-70). My tutorial partner was the urbane Bostonian wife of the England cricketer Mike Brearley. When she told us about her father’s library, she didn’t mean anything like the little prefab on our council estate, but a designated room in their colonial-style home. Continue reading...

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