Oliver Bernard (1925–2013)

Oliver Bernard was born on December 22, 1925. He left school at the age of 15. In 1942, he joined the Communist party and went to work for the party's Central Books in London as a packer and distributor. During World War II, he joined the Air Training Corps and was sent for further training in show more Canada, but never served because the war ended. In the 1950s, he received a degree in teaching from Goldsmith's College and taught conversational English in Paris and in Corsica. Later, he went to work at Notley's Advertising, where he won a prize for his advertisement for a "self-tapping screw". His first book of poems, Country Matters, was published in 1961. He went on to publish several more books of poetry and translations of Rimbaud, Apollinaire and other French writers. His other works include Rimbaud's Collected Poems and the memoir Getting Over It. He spent several weeks in prison in 1985 for being involved in the Snowball campaign to cut the wire perimeter fences at airbases, in protest at the government's attitude to nuclear weapons. He died on June 1, 2013 at the age of 87. (Bowker Author Biography) show less