Brian Higgins Biography

British poet, born in Batley, Yorkshire, educated at the University of Hull. During the 1950s and early 1960s he travelled extensively in Europe and worked in various capacities, including as an aero-elastician, railway clerk, and schoolteacher. Prior to his unexpected death in 1965, he was increasingly productive as a freelance literary journalist. His first collection of poetry, The Only Need (1960), was followed by two further volumes, Notes while Travelling (1964) and The Northern Fiddler (1966). Higgins's work characteristically displays a depth of innate technical ability which enabled him to combine fluent use of rhyme and metre with great colloquial vigour. While his weaker writing might be described as ‘the higher doggerel’, the majority of his poems are distinguished by anarchic imaginative energies and a penetratingly lucid intelligence. Thematically, his work drew repeatedly on his personal experiences, which he adapted to a range of treatments, including ironic social commentaries and idiosyncratic metaphysical or lyric modes. Though largely neglected latterly, his poems were widely admired and featured in numerous influential anthologies, including The Faber Book of Twentieth Century Verse (edited by David Wright and John Heath-Stubbs, 1965).