E.A. Markham
| E. A. "Archie" Markham | |
|---|---|
| Born | Edward Archibald Markham 1 October 1939 Harris, Montserrat |
| Died | 23 March 2008 (aged 68) Paris |
| Pen name | Paul St. Vincent, Sally Goodman |
| Occupation | Poet, playwright, novelist |
| Nationality | Montserratian |
| Notable works | Lambchops (1985), Human Rites (1984), Looking Out, Looking In (2008) |
Edward Archibald "Archie" Markham FRSL (1 October 1939 – 23 March 2008) was a Montserratian poet, playwright, novelist and academic. He moved to the United Kingdom in 1956, where he remained for most of his life, writing as well as teaching at various academic institutions. He was known for writing subtle, witty and intelligent poetry, which refused to conform to the conventions, and stereotypes, of British and Caribbean poetry alike.
E. A. Markham was born into a large, middle-class family in Harris, Montserrat, in 1939. He attended the only grammar school on the island, before emigrating to the UK at the age of seventeen. In the UK, Markham read English and Philosophy at the University of Wales, Lampeter from 1962 to 1965. He subsequently went on to research seventeenth-century comedy at the University of East Anglia, before taking up his first academic position as a lecturer at Kilburn Polytechnic (now the College of North West London).
On leaving Kilburn Polytechnic, Markham founded the Caribbean Theatre Workshop, which aimed to explore "non-naturalistic ways of writing and playing", and which he led on a successful tour of Montserrat, Saint Vincent and other parts of the Eastern Caribbean in 1970–71. Shortly after his return from the tour, Markham left for France, where he worked, building houses with a French co-operative movement (the Cooperative Ouvrière du Batiment) in the Alpes Maritimes, from 1972 to 1974. On returning to the UK, he joined a touring group called the Bluefoot Travellers, and was awarded a series of writing fellowships at Hull College (1978–79), in Brent, London (on a C. Day-Lewis Fellowship from 1979–80), Ipswich (1986), and at the University of Ulster (1988–91). He also worked as an active member of numerous literary groups and committees, including the Poetry Book Society, the Poetry Society (General Council, 1976–77) and the Minority Arts Advisory Service (MAAS), whose magazine, Artrage, he edited from 1985 to 1987.
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