Kevin Crossley-Holland (Kevin John William Crossley-Holland) Biography

British poet and translator, born in Mursley, Buckinghamshire, educated at St Edmund Hall, Oxford. He became Editorial Director at Victor Gollancz in 1972 and has held various academic posts. His first full collection, The Rain Giver (1972), was followed by several other volumes including The Dream-House (1976), Waterslain (1986), The Painting Room (1988), and New and Selected Poems, 1965–1990 (1991). As a poet, Crossley-Holland is recurrently concerned with locating his personal experience within the historical and topographical landscapes of his work. The principal locus of his later poetry is East Anglia, which is most memorably evoked in Waterslain. In many of his finest poems idiosyncratic rhythms interact with rich patterns of assonance and alliteration to unusually musical effect. Among his highly regarded translations of Old English poetry are Beowulf (1968) and The Exeter Riddle Book (1979). Havelok the Dane (1965) and The Labours of Herakles (1993) are among his many works for children and juveniles. His other writings include The Norse Myths: A Retelling (1980). He has also edited numerous anthologies of stories and poetry.