Brian Patten

Brian Patten (7 February 1946 – 29 September 2025) was an English poet and author. He came to prominence in the 1960s as one of the Liverpool poets, and wrote primarily lyrical poetry about human relationships. His famous works included Little Johnny's Confession, The Irrelevant Song, Vanishing Trick, Emma's Doll, and Impossible Parents.

Life Patten was born in Bootle, Lancashire, on 7 February 1946, to Arthur and Stella Patten. His parents separated shortly after, and he went to live with his grandparents in Wavertree, south Liverpool. He was schooled at Sefton Park Secondary Modern in the Smithdown Road area, where his early poetic writing was encouraged.

Together with another two Liverpool poets, Roger McGough and Adrian Henri, Patten published The Mersey Sound in 1967. One of the best-selling poetry anthologies of modern times, The Mersey Sound aimed to make poetry accessible to a broader audience. It has been described as "the most significant anthology of the twentieth century".

Together with Henri and McGough, Patten was awarded the Freedom of the City of Liverpool in 2001. He received the Cholmondeley Award for poetry in 2002, and he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2003.

From 1970 to 1975, Patten was in a relationship with Mary Moore, the daughter of artist Henry Moore; his collection The Irrelevant Song is dedicated to her. Patten's next published works were Vanishing Trick (1976) and Grave Gossip (1979). In 1983, along with McGough and Henri, he published New Volume, a follow-up to The Mersey Sound. Patten's later solo collections, Storm Damage (1988) and Armada (1996), are more varied, the latter featuring a sequence of poems concerning the death of his mother and memories of his childhood. Armada is perhaps Patten's most mature and formal book, dispensing with much of the playfulness of former work. He has also written comic verse for children, notably Gargling With Jelly and Thawing Frozen Frogs.

Patten's style is generally lyrical and his subjects are primarily love and relationships. His 1986 collection Love Poems draws together his best work in this area from the previous sixteen years. Charles Causley commented that he "reveals a sensibility profoundly aware of the ever-present possibility of the magical and the miraculous, as well as of the granite-hard realities. These are undiluted poems, beautifully calculated, informed – even in their darkest moments – with courage and hope."

The actor Paul Bettany, in his contribution to the poetry collection Poems That Make Grown Men Cry (2014), said of Patten's work: "Reading Brian Patten's poetry does that trick that art should do, which is to sort of adhere you to the surface of the planet, just long enough that you don't go spinning off into the loneliness of space – 'Somebody else has felt this too', you think. And you breathe a little easier."

Patten's poem "So Many Different Lengths of Time" has, in recent times, become a popular poem recited at funerals. At the service to remember Ken Dodd in Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral, the actor Stephanie Cole read "So Many Different Lengths of Time" to a congregation of thousands within and outside the building. Opening his poem with verse by Pablo Neruda, Patten's poem argues that it is the act of remembrance which offers family members the best antidote to the anguish of loss. In tackling the subject of grief, Patten views poetry as performing an important social function: "Poetry helps us understand what we've forgotten to remember. It reminds us of things that are important to us when the world overtakes us emotionally."

Selected bibliography Publications with others The Mersey Sound, 1967, The Old Pals' Act, 1972, New Volume, 1983, The Drifted Stream, 2024,

Poetry collections for adults Little Johnny's Confession, 1967, Notes to the Hurrying Man, 1969 When You Wake Tomorrow, illustrated by Pip Benveniste, 1971 The Irrelevant Song, 1971 And Sometimes It Happens, 1972 Vanishing Trick, 1976, Grave Gossip, 1979 Love Poems (anthology), 1986, Storm Damage, 1988, Grinning Jack (anthology), 1992 Armada, 1996, Selected Poems (anthology), 2007, Collected Love Poems (anthology), 2007, The Book of Upside Down Thinking, 2018,

Books for children The Elephant and the Flower, 1970, Jumping Mouse, 1972, Emma's Doll, 1976, Mr Moon's Last Case, 1988, Thawing Frozen Frogs, 1992, Impossible Parents, illustrated by Arthur Robins, Walker Books, 1994, , Jimmy Tag-Along, 1995 The Blue and Green Ark: An Alphabet For Planet Earth, 1999, Juggling With Gerbils, 2000, The Impossible Parents Go Green, illus. Robins, Walker Books, 2001, The Story Giant, 2004, The Most Impossible Parents, illus. Robins, Walker Books, 2010, Gargling With Jelly, 2015,

As editor The Puffin Book of Utterly Brilliant Poetry, 1998, The Puffin Book of Modern Children's Verse, 2006

Recordings Brian Patten: Reading His Poetry, Caedmon Records, Inc., 1969