John Ormond

John Ormond is considered by writers and critics alike to be one of the very best of Wales's post-war poets. Born in Dunvant and educated at University College, Swansea, he joined the staff of Picture Post in 1945. He returned to Swansea in 1949 and, in 1957, began what was to be a distinguished career with BBC Wales as a director and producer of documentary films. Ormond 'returned to poetry' in the mid-sixties, having destroyed much of his early poetry. His first major volume Requiem and Celebration was published in 1969, and his reputation was enhanced in 1973 by the appearance of Definition of a Waterfall and his inclusion in Penguin Modern Poets. A volume of selected poems was published in 1987. This is the first book-length study of John Ormond and offers a perceptive examination of Ormond the poet and film-maker.