Lee Harwood has a unique place among British poets, his style, described by one critic as "a determined yet mild voice," winning him a reputation in the British poetry renaissance of the 1960s, on which he has built as his work has subsequently developed. Although he has received little recognition from academics or prestigious reviewers, his work has been widely published and read, and has been formative in the development of many younger British writers.

Travers Rafe Lee Harwood was born in Leicester, to Wilfrid Travers Lee Harwood and Grace Ladkin Harwood, shortly before the outbreak of World War II. His father, an army reservist, was called up as soon as war started and after the evacuation from Dunkirk was posted to Africa until 1947. The relationship between father and son never overcame the initial reserve and suspicion of its late start. His schooling, fragmented in its early stages...