Martin Starkie

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Martin Starkie (25 November 1922 – 5 November 2010) was an English actor, writer and director for theatre, radio and television. Born in Burnley, Lancashire, he studied at Burnley Grammar School and Exeter College, Oxford, under critic Nevill Coghill. In 1946 he founded the Oxford University Poetry Society and, with Roy McNab, edited the Oxford Poetry magazine in 1947. He gained prominence on the BBC's The Third Programme and on television in the 1950s. Starkie worked with Coghill and with composers Richard Hill and John Hawkins, and he produced and directed the musical Canterbury Tales, based on Coghill's translation, first in Oxford, then in London's West End, on Broadway and in Australia. In 1986 he founded the Chaucer Festival, which ran annual events in Southwark and London for many years, and later established the Chaucer Centre in Canterbury. The Oxford University Poetry Society runs the annual Martin Starkie Prize in his honour. As Geoffrey Chaucer, he is commemorated by a bas-relief on the plinth of the Canterbury Chaucer statue at Best Lane and High Street. At the time of his death he lived at Horbury Villa, 85 Ladbroke Road, Notting Hill, London.