Background

Charles Causley was born on August 24, 1917, in Launceston, Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. He was the only child of Charles Samuel Causley (1885–1924), groom and gardener, and his wife, Laura Jane (1888–1971), domestic servant. His father, who had been a driver in the Army Service Corps on the western front, died from the effects of German gas when Causley was seven, and he was brought up by his mother, to whom he remained particularly close.

Education

Charles Causley was educated first at the local elementary school. He attended Launceston College. He left school at the age of sixteen to become a clerk in a builder's office.

Career

Charles Stanley Causley was interested in poetry as a young man, though he never considered himself a poet in fact until he experienced war in the Royal Navy during World War II. It was during his six years in the navy that he felt he had found an important subject to write about, as well as the form in which to put it. Returning home in 1946, he completed his education and became a teacher in Cornwall. His first collection, Farewell, Aggie Weston, was published in 1951.

Over three dozen collections would follow, including Johnny Alleluia (1961), Six Women (1973), Secret Destinations (1984), and, most recently, Collected Poems, 1951-2000 (2000). Many of Causley's books were written for younger audiences, and he kept publishing children’s verses even after he left teaching in 1976. Some of these works include Dick Whittington: A Story from England (1976), Jack the Treacle Eater ( 1987). and The Mermaid of Zennor (1999).

He twice worked in Perth as a visiting Fellow at the University of Western Australia and worked at the Banff School of Fine Arts in Canada, and especially after his retirement was much in demand at poetry readings in the United Kingdom. He made many broadcasts.

Achievements

• Charles Causley is best remembered as the author of Farewell Aggie Weston. He was awarded the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in 1967, given an honorary doctorate at Exeter University in 1977, appointed the Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1986, and, in 2001, was elected one of the 10 Companions of Literature by the Royal Society of Literature. The Charles Causley International Poetry Prize was established in his honor by the Causley Trust.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Early in the Morning: A Collection of New Poems

    (A collection of original nursery rhymes, some with accomp...)

    1986
  • Hands to Dance 1951
  • Farewell, Aggie Weston 1951
  • Survivor's Leave 1953
  • Union Street 1957
  • Johnny Alleluia 1961
  • Underneath the Water 1968
  • Secret Destinations 1984
  • As I Went Down Zig Zag 1974
  • The Hill of the Fairy Calf 1976
  • Dick Whittington 1976
  • The Song of the Shapes 1977
  • The Animals' Carol 1978
  • A Field of Vision 1988
  • The Young Man of Cury and Other Poems 1991
  • The Merrymaid of Zennor 1999

Membership

Charles Causley was a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Personality

An intensely private person, Charles Causley was nevertheless approachable. He was a friend of such writers as Siegfried Sassoon, A. L. Rowse, Jack Clemo, and Ted Hughes (his closest friend).

Connections

Charles Causley didn't have his own family and children.

Father:

Charles Causley

Mother:

Laura Causley

Friend:

Siegfried Sassoon

Friend:

Ted Hughes

References

• Contemporary Authors
  2004