Helen Dunmore (1952–2017)

Helen Dunmore was born in Beverley, in Yorkshire, England and grew up in a bookish household. The family moved frequently for her father's work. She attended Sutton High School, London and Nottingham Girls' High School, then direct grant grammar schools.

She studied English at York University, where she developed a lifelong love for Russian poets, especially Osip Mandelstam. From 1973 to 1975, she lived in Finland and worked as a teacher. In 1980, she married Frank Charnley, a lawyer, with whom she had two children and a stepson. She became the author of 11 collections of poetry, 12 novels, three books of short stories, and numerous books for young adults and children. She also wrote literary criticism. Some of Dunmore's children's books are included in school curricula.

She taught on Arvon Foundation writing courses, set up a poetry group in Bristol, worked on the management committee of the Society of Authors and served as its chair. She was a trustee of the Royal Literary Fund.
She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1997. In March 2017, she published her last novel, Birdcage Walk, and her final poetry collection, Inside the Wave, appeared a month later, shortly before her death. Inside the Wave posthumously won the Poetry and overall Book of the Year awards in the 2017 Costa Book Awards.