Terence Tiller

Terence Rogers Tiller (September 19, 1916 – December 24, 1987) was an English poet and radio producer.

Early life

He was born in Truro, Cornwall. He studied history at Cambridge; after graduating BA he lectured there in medieval history, 1937 to 1939. During World War II he taught English literature at the University of Cairo.

BBC

In 1946 he joined the BBC Features Department; and was a known Fitzrovian. In 1955 he was producer of the first BBC radio adaptation of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings (which did not please the author). He later brought work by Mervyn Peake to the airwaves. In 1964 he moved to the Drama Department; he has written and produced radio scripts on a wide range of subjects, but mainly on history, literature and mythology. His work on the weekly chess programme on Network Three led to his book Chess Treasury of the Air.

Bibliography

Edited works and translations

• The Vision of Piers Plowman; translated from Middle English into Modern English verse
• A translation of Dante
• Chess Treasury of the Air (Penguin Handbooks; PH124; 1966) for Penguin, which he edited
• New Poems 1960, edited with Anthony Cronin and Jon Silkin
• John Gower Confessio Amantis: 'The Lover's Shrift'; translated from Middle English into Modern English verse. (Penguin Classics; L128.)Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1965

Original poetry

As a poet, he was published by Hogarth Press: Poems (1941); The Inward Animal (1943); Reading a Medal, and other poems (1957) as well as "Unarm, Eros". Notes for a Myth (1968) and That Singing Mesh, and other poems (1979) were published by Chatto and Windus in the Phoenix Living Poets series.