Roy Broadbent Fuller CBE (11 February 1912 – 27 September 1991) was an English poet and writer, best known for his contributions to poetry. Born in Failsworth, Lancashire, to Leopold Charles Fuller and Nellie Broadbent, his early life was shaped by a lower-middle-class background. His father, who had a difficult start in life as the illegitimate son of Minnie Augusta Fuller, worked his way up to become the works manager and later a director of a rubber-proofing mill in Hollinwood, Greater Manchester, before passing away in 1920.
After his father’s death, Fuller was raised in Blackpool and attended Blackpool High School. He started his career as a solicitor’s apprentice in 1928, the same year his first poem was published in The Sunday Referee. He qualified as a solicitor in 1933, eventually working for The Woolwich Equitable Building Society, where he became head of the legal department and later a director. During World War II, Fuller served in the Royal Navy from 1941 to 1946.
Fuller’s first book of poetry, Poems (1939), marked the beginning of his literary career. In the 1950s, he began writing fiction, including crime novels, and also produced several volumes of memoirs. As a poet, he became associated with The Movement, a group of poets known for their conservative, formal style and emphasis on clarity. Fuller held the position of Professor of Poetry at Oxford University from 1968 to 1973. His achievements were recognised with a C.B.E. and the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 1970, as well as the Cholmondeley Award from the Society of Authors in 1980.
In addition to his literary work, Fuller was involved in broadcasting, serving on the Board of Governors of the BBC from 1972 to 1979. His son, the poet John Fuller, continued the family’s literary legacy. Fuller was also honoured by fellow writer Anthony Powell, who dedicated the eighth volume of his monumental series A Dance to the Music of Time, The Soldier’s Art (1966), to him.
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Roy Fuller’s Books
- Poems (1939)
The Middle of a War (1942)
A Lost Season (1944)
Savage Gold (1946)
With My Little Eye (1948)
Epitaphs and Occasions (1949)
The Second Curtain (1953)
Counterparts (1954)
Image of a Society (1956)
Brutus’s Orchard (1957)
Fantasy and Fugue (1956) [This was republished as Murder in Mind.]
Byron for Today (1958)
The Ruined Boys (1959)
Buff (1965)
My Child, My Sister (1965)
New Poems (1968)
Off Course: Poems (1969)
The Carnal island (1970)
Seen Grandpa Lately? (1972)
Song Cycle from a Record Sleeve (1972)
Tiny Tears (1973)
Owls and Artificers: Oxford lectures on poetry (1974)
Professors and Gods: Last Oxford Lectures on Poetry (1975)
From the Joke Shop (1975)
The Joke Shop Annexe (1975)
An Ill-Governed Coast: Poems (1976)
Poor Roy (1977)
The Reign of Sparrows (1980)
Souvenirs (1980)
Fellow Mortals: An anthology of animal verse (1981)
More About Tompkins, and other light verse (1981)
House and Shop (1982)
The Individual and his Times: A selection of the poetry of Roy Fuller (1982) with V. J. Lee
Vamp Till Ready: Further memoirs (1982)
Upright Downfall (1983) with Barbara Giles and Adrian Rumble
As from the Thirties (1983)
Home and Dry: Memoirs III (1984)
Mianserin Sonnets (1984)
Subsequent to Summer (1985)
Twelfth Night: A personal view (1985)
New and Collected Poems, 1934-84 (1985)
Outside the Canon (1986)
Murder in Mind (1986)
Lessons of the Summer (1987)
Consolations (1987)
Available for Dreams (1989)
Stares (1990)
Spanner and Pen: Post-war memoirs (1991)
