Andrew Motion

Distinguished author Andrew Motion is almost as famous for his biographies as for his poetry. He is author of The Lamberts (1987), Philip Larkin: A Writer's Life (1993) and Keats (1997).
His most recent collections of poetry are Salt Water (1997) and Selected Poems (1998). He has also edited editions of William Barnes and Thomas Hardy. His work has been awarded the John Llewelyn Rhys Prize, the Somerset Maugham Prize and the Whitbread Prize for biography.
One of the major life events that turned Andrew Motion to poetry was the sad event that took place when he was sixteen. His mother had a bad horse riding accident and remained comatose before dying ten years later.
By reading to his mother in hospital, he was able to develop as a poet. He changed from being sociable to being more inward looking.
Andrew Motion was poet laureate between 1999 and 2009.