Michael Rosen

**Michael Wayne Rosen** (born 7 May 1946) is an English children's author and poet who has written 140 books. He served as Children's Laureate from June 2007 to June 2009. He has also been a TV presenter and a political columnist.

## Contents

* 1Early life
* 2Career
	+ 2.1Early career
	+ 2.2Since 1990
* 3Political views
* 4Awards and honours
* 5Personal life
* 6References
* 7Further reading
	+ 7.1Articles
	+ 7.2Book reviews
	+ 7.3News reports
* 8External links

## Early life[edit]

Michael Wayne Rosen was born into a Jewish family in Harrow, Middlesex, with roots in what is now Poland, Russia, and Romania and connections to the Arbeter Ring and the Bund. Rosen's middle name is in honour of Wayne C. Booth, who was billeted with his father at the US army university in Shrivenham, Oxfordshire, and became a literary critic, writing a "seminal" book about the modern novel, *The Rhetoric of Fiction*.

His father Harold (1919–2008) was born in Brockton, Massachusetts, but grew up in the East End of London from the age of two, when his mother left Harold's father and returned to Britain. He attended Davenant Foundation School and then Regent Street Polytechnic. Harold was a secondary school teacher before becoming a professor of English at the Institute of Education in London and publishing extensively, especially on the teaching of English to children.

His mother was Connie (née Isakofsky) Rosen (1920-1976). She attended Central Foundation Girls' School, then in Spital Square, where she made friends such as Bertha Sokoloff, who went on to lead a significant rent strike. Connie worked as a secretary at the *Daily Worker* and later as a primary school teacher and then a training college lecturer. Both members of the Young Communist League, Harold and Connie met in 1935, aged 15. They participated in the Battle of Cable Street together. As a young couple, they settled in Pinner, Middlesex. They eventually left the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1957. Michael never joined, but this background influenced his childhood. For example, his father's acquaintance (through his mother) with the bohemian literary figure Beatrice Hastings made an impression on him as a child.

At around the age of 11, Michael Rosen began attending Harrow Weald County Grammar School.

Rosen attended state schools in Pinner and Harrow and Watford Grammar School for Boys. Having discovered the range of Jonathan Miller, he thought, "Wouldn't it be wonderful to know all about science, and know all about art, and be funny and urbane and all that". His mother was by this time working for the BBC. Producing a programme featuring poetry, she persuaded her son to write for it and used some of the material he submitted. Subsequently, in his own words:

## Career[edit]

### Early career[edit]

After his studies at Wadham College, Oxford, and graduation in 1969, Rosen became a graduate trainee at the BBC. Among the work that he did while there in the 1970s was presenting a series on BBC Schools television called *Walrus* (write and learn, read, understand, speak). He was also scriptwriter on the children's reading series *Sam on Boffs' Island*, but Rosen found working for the corporation frustrating: "Their view of 'educational' was narrow. The machine had decided this was the direction to take. Your own creativity was down the spout."

Despite previously having made no secret of his left-wing politics when he was originally interviewed for a BBC post, he was asked to go freelance in 1972, though in practice he was sacked, despite several departments of the BBC wishing to employ him. In common with the China expert and journalist Isabel Hilton, among several others at this time, Rosen had failed the vetting procedures which were then in operation. This longstanding practice was only revealed in 1985, and by the time Rosen requested access to his files, they had been destroyed.

In 1974, *Mind Your Own Business*, his first book of poetry for children, was published. In due course, Rosen established himself with his collections of humorous verse for children, including *Wouldn't You Like to Know*, *You Tell Me* and *Quick Let's Get Out of Here*.

Educationalist Morag Styles has described Rosen as "one of the most significant figures in contemporary children's poetry" and one of the first poets "to draw closely on his own childhood experiences and to 'tell it as it was' in the ordinary language children actually use".

Rosen played a key role in opening up children's access to poetry, both through his own writing and with important anthologies such as *Culture Shock*. He was one of the first poets to make visits to schools throughout the UK and further afield in Australia, Canada and Singapore. His tours continue to enthuse and engage school children about poetry in the present.

*We're Going on a Bear Hunt* is a children's novel written by Rosen and illustrated by Helen Oxenbury. The book won the overall Nestlé Smarties Book Prize in 1989 and also won the 0–5 years category. The publisher, Walker Books, celebrated the Work's 25th anniversary in 2014 by breaking a *Guinness World Record* for the Largest Reading Lesson.

### Since 1990[edit]

Michael Rosen in 2009
In 1993, Rosen gained an MA in Children's Literature from the University of Reading and subsequently gained a PhD from the University of North London. Margaret Meek Spencer supervised his work and continued to support him throughout her life.

Rosen is well established as a broadcaster, presenting a range of documentary features on British radio. He is the presenter of BBC Radio 4's regular magazine programme *Word of Mouth*, which looks at the English language and the way it is used.

The English Association gave *Michael Rosen's Sad Book* (2004) an Exceptional Award for the Best Children's Illustrated Books of its year in the 4–11 age range. The book was written by Michael Rosen and illustrated by Quentin Blake. It deals in part with bereavement and followed the publication of *Carrying the Elephant: A Memoir of Love and Loss*, which was published in November 2002 after the death of his son Eddie (aged 18), who features as a child in much of his earlier poetry. Rosen's *This Is Not My Nose: A Memoir of Illness and Recovery* (2004) is an account of his ten years with undiagnosed hypothyroidism; a course of drugs in 1981 alleviated the condition.

Rosen has been involved in campaigning around issues of education and for the Palestinian cause. In August 2010, Rosen contributed to an eBook collection of political poems entitled *Emergency Verse - Poetry in Defence of the Welfare State,* edited by Alan Morrison. He has written columns for the *Socialist Worker* newspaper and spoken at conferences organised by the Socialist Workers Party but has never been a party member. He stood for election in June 2004 in London as a Respect Coalition candidate. He is a supporter of the Republic campaign.

Later, the YouTube Poop community started making YouTube Poops on videos uploaded to Michael's channel by his son Joe Rosen. Commenting on the phenomenon, he tweeted: "Some are very funny and innocent, some are obscene, some are defamatory, some are racist, some are anti-semitic." While Rosen said he was "fond of the funny ones", he said that he has "tried to get the racist, antisemitic ones taken down".

In 2011, he collaborated with his wife, Emma-Louise Williams, to produce the film *Under the Cranes*, with Rosen providing the original screenplay (a play for voices called *Hackney Streets*), which Williams took as a basis with which to direct the film. It premiered at the Rio Cinema, Dalston, London, on 30 April 2011 as part of the East End Film Festival.

Rosen has previously taught children's literature on the MA in education studies at the University of North London and its successor institution, London Metropolitan University. He was formerly a visiting professor of children's literature at Birkbeck, University of London, where he taught children's literature and devised an MA in children's literature, which commenced in October 2010. Since September 2014, he has been at Goldsmiths, University of London, as professor of children's literature in the Department of Educational Studies, teaching an MA in children's literature.

He is also a patron of the Shakespeare Schools Festival, a charity that enables schoolchildren across the UK to perform Shakespeare in professional theatres.

Rosen was the subject of the BBC Radio 4's *Desert Island Discs* programme on 6 August 2006.

## Political views[edit]

In August 2015, Rosen endorsed Jeremy Corbyn's campaign in the Labour Party leadership election. Rosen contributed to *Poets for Corbyn*, an anthology of poems "featuring 20 writers". In the same month, he was a signatory to a letter criticising *The Jewish Chronicle*'s reporting of Corbyn's association with alleged antisemites. In 2016, along with others, he toured the UK to support Corbyn's bid to become Prime Minister.

In November 2019, along with other public figures, Rosen signed a letter supporting Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, describing him as "a beacon of hope in the struggle against emergent far-right nationalism, xenophobia and racism in much of the democratic world", and endorsed him in the 2019 UK general election.

In December 2019, along with 42 other leading cultural figures, he signed a letter endorsing the Labour Party under Corbyn's leadership in the 2019 general election. The letter stated that "Labour's election manifesto under Corbyn's leadership offers a transformative plan that prioritises the needs of people and the planet over private profit and the vested interests of a few."

## Awards and honours[edit]

Rosen was appointed the sixth British Children's Laureate in June 2007, succeeding Jacqueline Wilson, and held the honour until June 2009, when he was succeeded by Anthony Browne. Rosen signed off from the Laureateship with an article in *The Guardian*, in which he said, "Sometimes when I sit with children when they have the space to talk and write about things, I have the feeling that I am privileged to be the kind of person who is asked to be part of it". In 2007, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Exeter.

In January 2008, Rosen was presented with an honorary doctorate by the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust and the University of East London. In November 2008, he was presented with an honorary master's degree at the University of Worcester and the Chevalier de l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of the Order of Arts and Literature) at the French ambassador's residence in London.

In April 2010, Rosen was given the Fred and Anne Jarvis Award from the National Union of Teachers for "campaigning for education". In July 2010, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Nottingham Trent University.

In April 2011, Rosen was awarded an honorary doctorate at the Institute of Education, University of London, and in July 2011, an honorary doctorate by the University of the West of England. Rosen was selected to be the guest director of the 2013 Brighton Festiv