Obituary: Death of poet and polymath Peter Porter

Published: 30 April 2010
by JAMIE WELHAM

PETER Porter, an Australian by birth who became one of Britain’s best-loved poets, has died of cancer aged 81.

He was described by friends and colleagues as a man of formidable intellect, who like fellow Australians Germaine Greer and Clive James, made the move from outsider to literary heavyweight.

James described Porter’s work as “so freighted with learned references that I can’t even tell if I don’t know what they mean”.

Another friend, the Belsize Park-based author Alan Brownjohn once said: “he seemed to know everything, not just about literature but also about music and painting… talking to Peter was a quick way of finding out how ignorant we really were.”

Mr Porter, who lived in Paddington for more than 40 years, was a key member of the much- fabled “Group” in the 1960s – a collective of London-based poets including Adrian Mit­chell and Martin Bell, credited with smashing the orthodoxy of what poetry could be and bringing it to a new audience.

He was also well known for his work as a broadcaster and critic. Former BBC Producer Piers Plowright, who worked with him on a number of occasions over the past 40 years said he was “a true radio man” and “bon viveur” who was highbrow without ever coming across as a snob. 

Peter Neville Frederick Porter was born an only child in Brisbane. He was sent to boarding school following the death of his mother when he was nine.

He immersed himself in music and European literature and then, following a short-lived career in journalism, moved to England in 1951, taking a job as a copywriter, living in Paddington. 

After marrying Jannice Henry, with whom he had two daughters, he left advertising and published his first collection of poems, Once Bitten, Twice Bitten. 

Arguably his high water mark came at the beginning of the 1970s with his volume The Last of England. It marked a change in how he viewed himself, famously saying “I haven’t an atom in my body which I brought to Europe in 1951”, although friends say he relished the dual identity.

Other notable works include The Cost of Seriousness (1978), Afterburner (2004) and Better than God (2009). He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and collected numerous prizes, including the Whitbread Poetry Award. He was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2004 and was made a Companion of Literature in 2006. 

He married Christine Berg, a child psychologist, in 1991. 

Peter Porter: February 16 1929-April 23 2010.