As with many poets before and since, Scannell’s prize-winning poetry – which covered topics ranging from love, war, ageing, fear, remorse, and even verse for children – seems to have sprung from the fertile soil of a disturbed and damaged life. Yet his verse, greatly admired by the likes of Seamus Heaney, is written in an accessible style, often laced with an engaging dry humour.
Jem Langworthy, who copy-edited his biography for Oxford University Press, presented an evening about this British poet and author who at one time lived locally at Nether Compton.