12 Facts About Montagu Slater

Charles Montagu Slater was an English poet, novelist, playwright, journalist, critic and librettist.

One of five children, Slater was born in the small mining port of Millom, Cumberland facing Lancashire across the estuary of Duddon sands.

Montagu Slater's father Seth Slater, a Wesleyan lay preacher, was a tailor and ran the town's post office.

Montagu Slater attended Magdalen College, Oxford and she University College London.

At Millom and Liverpool, Montagu Slater wrote verse which he valued, often linking northern port-life to classical legend and philosophy.

Always interested in theatre, Montagu Slater wrote introductions to editions of the melodramas about two infamous murder cases, the Red Barn murder of Maria Marten and the excesses of Sweeney Todd, the barber, in 1928 and 1933.

Montagu Slater was involved in staging large pageants, including one in 1938 at Wembley Stadium.

Montagu Slater was one of a group of Communist intellectuals who came together to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the publication of the Communist Manifesto in 1948 with a pageant held at the Royal Albert Hall on 30 March 1948.

Montagu Slater argued that contemporary listeners were accustomed to assonance and consonantal rhyme, but it could be argued that this form of 'rough' rhyme was common in early English drama and that Slater was restoring it to the stage, rather than inventing something new.

Montagu Slater wrote the libretto for Yerma, composed by Denis ApIvor.

In 1944, Montagu Slater published the novel Once a Jolly Swagman set in the then-popular world of motorcycle speedway racing, which explored the themes of unionism, workers' compensation, and disaffected youth.

Montagu Slater wrote the scripts for several films, including The Brave Don't Cry, about a mining disaster.