Christopher Logue

Christopher Logue, CBE (23 November 1926 – 2 December 2011) was an English poet associated with the British Poetry Revival, and a pacifist. Life Born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, and brought up in the Portsmouth area, Logue was the only child of middle-aged parents, John and Molly Logue, who married late. He attended Roman Catholic schools, including St John's College, Portsmouth, Prior Park College, before going to Portsmouth Grammar School. On call-up, he enlisted in the Black Watch, and was posted to Palestine. He was court-martialled in 1945 over a scheme to sell stolen pay books, and sentenced to 16 months' imprisonment, served partly in Acre Prison. He lived in Paris from 1951 to 1956, and was a friend of Alexander Trocchi. In 1958 he joined the first of the Aldermaston Marches, organised by the Direct Action Committee Against Nuclear War. He was on the Committee of 100. He served a month in jail for refusing to be bound over not to continue with the 17 September 1961 Parliament Square sit-down. He heard Bertrand Russell tell the Bow Street magistrate, "I came here to save your life. But, having heard what you have to say, I don't think the end justifies the means." In Drake Hall open prison he and fellow protesters were set to work – "Some wit allocated it" – demolishing a munitions factory. He was friends for many years with author and translator Austryn Wainhouse, with whom he carried on a lively correspondence for decades. Career Logue was a playwright and screenwriter as well as a film actor. His screenplays were Savage Messiah and The End of Arthur's Marriage. He was a contributor to Private Eye magazine between 1962 and 1993, as well as writing for Alexander Trocchi's literary journal, Merlin. Logue won the 2005 Whitbread Poetry Award for Cold Calls.