Tribute to James Kirkup, a poet and academic

May 12 2009 by David Whetstone, The Journal

As a child, he wrote in his autobiography, he felt “an aching sense of lonely apartness from others”. Anaemic, he was nicknamed The Holy Ghost.

Returning to Tyneside in 1971, after a long absence, to read from The Bewick Bestiary, a new work celebrating engraver Thomas Bewick, he cut a dash by wearing a kimono.

Many poets have been influenced by James Kirkup’s work and in the autumn a new volume of his poems was published by Red Squirrel Press, of Morpeth.

Last night publisher Sheila Wakefield said she had been given James Kirkup’s address at a conference in Durham.

“I plucked up the courage to write to him and he very kindly wrote back with the collection that became Marsden Bay.

“Although I only knew him for a short time, I was very lucky to have published him at all.

“I feel hugely honoured to have published him. I think he deserves more recognition than he has had and I’ll continue to try to raise his profile.”