Former poet laureate Andrew Motion reveals the books that shaped his life, from childhood favourites to the poets he now admires most. In an interview, Motion discussed his earliest reading memories, the writers who changed him as a teenager, and the works he revisits.
Early Reading and Teenage Influences
Motion grew up in a family where reading was not a priority. His father claimed to have read only half a book in his life, The Lonely Skier by Hammond Innes, while his mother read three or four novels a year. However, a gift from his grandmother, My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett, sparked his interest at age seven. He found it amusing and ingenious.
As a teenager, Motion acquired White Eagles Over Serbia by Lawrence Durrell, which his parents deemed unsuitably violent. Though he never finished it, he enjoyed carrying it as a sign of maturity. Later, his history teacher read Wilfred Owen's poems during a First World War lesson, igniting his passion for poetry. He bought Owen's Collected Poems, which became a sacred text for him and remains so today.
Becoming a Writer and Returning to Classics
Motion never consciously wanted to be a writer until he found himself writing. His A-level poetry anthology, Theme and Variations edited by RB Heath (1965), inspired him to experiment with his own poems, comparing the discovery to Carter entering Tutankhamun's tomb.
He returned to Alexander Pope after initial bafflement. Pope's An Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot was dense with unfamiliar references, but fifty years later, Motion considers Pope one of the most admired poets for his genius of thought and technique.
Rereading and Comfort Books
Motion regularly rereads Wordsworth's The Prelude (in its earlier two versions) and John Berryman's 77 Dream Songs, calling them poetic autobiographies that feel like the breath of life. Almost all novels he rereads are by Henry James, his preferred fiction writer, whose later works grow more important each year.
He could not reread JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, despite enjoying it immensely in his late teens, even at breakfast. Now, despite appreciating its warnings about tyrannical power, he has no appetite for that narrative style.
Among books discovered later in life, Motion highlights Galen Strawson's Things That Bother Me, which changed his thinking about living in time. Currently, he reads The Collected Poems of George Oppen and Dostoevsky's The Idiot simultaneously, finding it more enjoyable than it sounds.
Motion prefers books that provoke discomfort over comfort, but Elizabeth Bishop's prose, poems, and letters offer both comfort and provocation. His latest collection, Gravity Archives, is published by Faber.
