13 Facts About Fleur Adcock

Fleur Adcock is well-represented in New Zealand poetry anthologies, was awarded an honorary doctorate of literature from Victoria University of Wellington, and was awarded an OBE in 1996 for her contribution to New Zealand literature.

Fleur Adcock spent eight years of her childhood in England.

Fleur Adcock studied Classics at Victoria University of Wellington, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1954 and a Masters of Arts in 1956.

Fleur Adcock worked as an assistant lecturer in classics and librarian at the University of Otago in Dunedin between 1958 and 1962, and as a librarian at the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington between 1962 and 1963.

Fleur Adcock had already had poems published in a few literary journals in New Zealand at this time.

In 1975, Fleur Adcock returned briefly to New Zealand for the first time since she had left for London, and on returning to London in 1976, she became a full time writer.

Fleur Adcock was the Arts Council Creative Writing Fellow at the Charlotte Mason College of Education in Ambleside from 1977 to 1978, followed by the Northern Arts Literary Fellowship at the universities of Newcastle and Durham from 1979 to 1981.

From 1980, Fleur Adcock worked as a freelance writer, living in East Finchley, north London, a translator and poetry commentator for the BBC.

Fleur Adcock was only the seventh female poet to receive the award in its 73 years.

Fleur Adcock was married to two notable New Zealand literary personalities.

Fleur Adcock had two sons, Gregory and Andrew, both with her first husband.

Fleur Adcock's sister Marilyn Duckworth is a novelist, and their mother Irene was a writer.

Fleur Adcock died following a short illness on 10 October 2024, at the age of 90.