Fleur Adcock

In 1952, she married Alistair Campbell, also a poet, whom she met in Victoria. She gave birth to two sons, Gregory and Andrew. The couple divorced in 1958.

In 1962, she married Barry Crump, a writer, but the marriage lasted for only a year as they got divorced in 1963. Subsequently she moved from New Zealand to England with her five-year old son Andrew, leaving Gregory with his father.

She was born as Kareen Fleur Adcock on February 10, 1934, in Auckland, New Zealand, to Cyril John Adcock and his wife, Irene Robinson Adcock, a writer. Fleur has a sister, Marilyn Duckworth, who is also a writer.

In 1939, her family moved to England where she spent the most of her childhood. After the end of World War II, her family returned to New Zealand, in 1947, where she studied Classics from Victoria University at Wellington.

She obtained her graduate degree and went on to complete her post-graduation in 1956.

She started her career as an assistant lecturer in classics at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand and also served as the assistant librarian until 1961. The following year, she returned to Wellington to work in the Alexander Turnbull Library.

In 1963, she moved to England and took up a post as an assistant librarian at the ‘Foreign and Commonwealth Office’ in London. She also took two creative writing fellowships in UK; the first at ‘Charlotte Mason College of Education’ in Windermere and the other one at the universities of ‘Newcastle upon Tynne’ and ‘Durham’.

In 1964, her first poetry collection titled ‘Eye of the Hurricane’ was published in New Zealand, and since then she has written many collections of poetry, observing the world with a quiet incisiveness.

In subsequent years, she published several poetry collections such as ‘Tigers’ (1967), ‘High Tide in the Garden’ (1971). Her 1974 collection, ‘The Scenic Route’, is based on her relationship with her Irish ancestors.

Her 1979 poetry collection titled ‘The Inner Harbour’ is generally cited as her most artistically successful work. The book is divided into four sections and confronts the issues of love, death, and loss. In the final section, her poem reflects an acceptance and coming to terms with the losses that she experienced so far in her life.

In 1964, she was conferred with the ‘New Zealand State Literary Fund Award’.

She received the ‘Jessie Mackay Prize’ twice in her career, in 1968 and 1972.

She has also been presented with the ‘Buckland Award’ twice, in 1968 and 1979.

In 1976, she was awarded the Cholmondeley Award by the Society of Authors in the United Kingdom.

In 1984, she became a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.