Robert Graves

Robert Graves was an English poet, novelist and scholar, born in Wimbledon on 24 July 1895 and dying on 7 December 1985. He served as an officer in the First World War, was badly wounded, and carried the memory of the trenches through much of his life. After the war he studied at Oxford and began publishing poetry, then settled for long periods in Majorca, Spain, where he did much of his writing.

Graves wrote many poems, often short, clear and concerned with love, loss and myth. He became most widely read for his historical novels about ancient Rome, above all I, Claudius, and for his frank wartime memoir Goodbye to All That. He also wrote influential and controversial works on myth and poetic inspiration, including The White Goddess and The Greek Myths. Scholars still dispute many of his theories, but his lively prose and independent mind keep his work widely read.