Tessa Ransford

Teresa Mary ("Tessa") Ransford (8 July 1938 – 2 September 2015) was a poet, activist and the founding director of the Scottish Poetry Library.

Biography Teresa Ransford was born in Mumbai, India on 8 July 1938. Her mother was Lady Torfrida Ransford and her father was Sir Alister Ransford, Master of the Mint of Mumbai. The family moved back to the United Kingdom in 1944, finally moving to Scotland in 1948 when her father took up the position of bursar at the Loretto School in Musselburgh. She went on to study German and Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh.

The Scottish Poetry Library had 300 books when she started it in 1984. By the time she died, it had over 30,000. and was President of Scottish PEN from 2003 to 2006.

Reviews Mills, Paul (1982), The Individual Voice, which includes a review of Light of the Mind, in Murray, Glen (ed.), Cencrastus No. 8, Spring 1982, pp. 45 & 46,