Born this day in 1916 London, Gavin Ewart is known for poetry. He also wrote poems for children, and known for some light-verse on playful risqué subjects, which included Phallus of Wonderland.
The most remarkable phenomenon of the English poetic scene … has been the advent, or perhaps I should say the irruption, of Gavin Ewart.
Philip Larkin
If you click the button below and scroll down to the bottom of the page, you’ll be able to listen to Gavin Ewan reading his poems aloud. I didn’t listen to them all, but Miss Twye and Office Friendships were very amusing.
According to Britannica, and their biography, a strain of melancholy pervades his later poetry, in which he examines such topics as cruelty and death. Several of his collections, including The Learned Hippopotamus (1986) and Caterpillar Stew(1990), were written for children, and his verse is gathered in The Collected Ewart 1933–1980 (1980) and Collected Poems 1980–1990 (1991). Ewart also edited several poetry anthologies.
You can find his poems on Amazon and it’s described as a collection of Gavin Ewart’s work, selected by the man himself shortly before his death in 1995. They certainly seem to be varied and interesting.
Karen J. Mossman 