Charles Causley Charles Stanley Causley , CBE , FRSL ( 24 August 1917 – 4 November 2003 ) was a Cornish poet , schoolmaster and writer . His work is noted for its simplicity and directness and for its associations with folklore , especially when linked to his native Cornwall . Life and work . Causley was born at Launceston in Cornwall and was educated there and in Peterborough . His father died in 1924 from long - standing injuries from the First World War . Causley had to leave school at 15 to earn money , working as an office boy during his early years . He served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War , as a coder , an experience he later wrote about in a book of short stories , " Hands to Dance and Skylark " . His first collection of poems , " Farewell , Aggie Weston " ( 1951 ) contained his " Song of the Dying Gunner A . A . 1 " : < poem > Farewell , Aggie Weston , the Barracks , at Guz , Hang my tiddley suit on the door I ' m sewn up neat in a canvas sheet And I shan ' t be home no more . < / poem > " Survivor ' s Leave " followed in 1953 , and from then until his death Causley published frequently . He worked as a teacher at a school in Launceston , leaving the town seldom and reluctantly , though he twice spent time in Perth as a visiting Fellow at the University of Western Australia , and worked at the Banff School of Fine Arts in Canada , and especially after his retirement which taken early in 1976 was much in demand at poetry readings in the United Kingdom . He made many broadcasts . An intensely private person , he was nevertheless approachable . He was a friend of such writers as Siegfried Sassoon , A . L . Rowse , Jack Clemo and Ted Hughes ( his closest friend ) . His poems for children were popular , and he used to say that he could have lived comfortably on the fees paid for the reproduction of " Timothy Winters " : < poem > Timothy Winters comes to school With eyes as wide as a football pool , Ears like bombs and teeth like splinters : A blitz of a boy is Timothy Winters . - - first verse So come one angel , come on ten : Timothy Winters says " Amen Amen amen amen amen . " Timothy Winters , Lord . Amen . - - last verse < / poem > In 1958 , Causley was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and was awarded a CBE in 1986 . When he was 83 years old he was made a Companion of Literature by the Royal Society of Literature : he greeted this award with the words , ' My goodness , what an encouragement ! ' Other awards include the Queen ' s Gold Medal for Poetry in 1967 and a Cholmondeley Award in 1971 . In 1973 / 74 he was Visiting Fellow in Poetry at the University of Exeter , receiving an honorary doctorate from that university on 7 July 1977 . He was presented with the Heywood Hill Literary Prize in 2000 . Between 1962 and 1966 he was a member of the Poetry Panel of the Arts Council of Great Britain . He was twice awarded a travelling scholarship by the Society of Authors . There was a campaign to have him appointed Poet Laureate on the death of John Betjeman , but to the people of his home town , he became " the greatest poet laureate we never had " . He was interviewed by Roy Plomley on " Desert Island Discs " on 1 December 1979 : his music choices included five classical selections and three others while his chosen book was " Boswell ' s Life of Johnson " . In 1982 , on his 65th birthday , a book of poems was published in his honour that included contributions from Ted Hughes , Seamus Heaney , Philip Larkin and twenty - three other poets , testifying to the respect and indeed love that the British poetry community had for him . His work , influenced by W . H . Auden , is intensely original and many consider him to be , as Betjeman was , a man working outside of the dominant trends of the poetry of his day . Because of this , academia has paid less attention to his work than it might have done . His popularity , particularly among the Cornish , remains high . Reception and legacy . According to the " Nortn Anthology of Children ' s Literature " , " [ b ] ecause his characteristic themes , preoccupations , and freshness of language vary little , it is often difficult to distinguish between his writings for children and those for adults . He himself declared that he did know whether a given poem was for children or adults as he was writing it , and he included his children ' s poetry without comment in his collected works . " W . H . Auden comments on Causley stating that " Causley stayed true to what he called his ' guiding principle ' . . . while there are some good poems which are only for adults , because they pre - suppose adult experience in their readers , there are no good poems which are only for children . " His close friend Ted Hughes said of Causley : " Among the English poetry of the last half century , Charles Causley ' s could well turn out to be the best loved and most needed . . . Before I was made Poet Laureate , I was asked to name my choice of the best poet for the job . Without hesitation I named Charles Causley – this marvellously resourceful , original poet , yet among all known poets the only one who could be called a man of the people , in the old , best sense . A poet for whom the title might have been invented afresh . I was pleased to hear that in an unpublished letter Philip Larkin thought the same and chose him too . " The Charles Causley Trust secured the poet ' s house in Launceston for the nation in 2006 , and is working towards opening the house to the public and providing a programme of heritage activities to promote Causley ' s life and work . In June 2010 , the first Charles Causley Festival took place in Launceston , held over a long weekend . The programme included literature , music , art and a variety of other activities . A second , expanded Festival took place in the town over a full week , spanning the end of May and the start of June 2011 , and broadened its themes still further with a science - based talk from Professor James Lovelock ( of ' Gaia Theory ' fame ) who lives in the district .