Christopher Logue

Christopher Logue was born in 1926 in Hampshire, and was educated in Bath. In the days of ‘national service’, that is, universal male conscription he was an outspoken pacifist. He was associated with the British Poetry Revival, and also wrote for theatre and screen, including the screenplays Savage Messiah and The End of Arthur’s Marriage. He was a regular contributor to Private Eye and to Merlin literary journal.

He is best known for his much praised adaptation of Homer’s Iliad, having received the BBC radio commission in the late 1950s. What he has produced is modern and cinematic and bold. He used previously published translations as the basis for his translations. The result is vivid and a marvellous reinvigoration of an ancient poem.

In addition Logue has published collections of politically engaged and jazz-influenced poetry. His Selected Poems was published in 1996. Logue has also written screenplays, memoirs, pornographic fiction, ballads, and limericks.

Logue has won the Paris Review/Bernard F. O’Connor Award and received an Order of the British Empire for his contributions to literature.