Tessa Ransford

OBE
Born8 July 1938
Mumbai
Died2 September 2015
Edinburgh
NationalityScottish
Alma materUniversity of Edinburgh
Known forFounding director of the Scottish Poetry Library
Notable work
  • Not Just Moonshine: new and selected poems (2008)
  • Rug of a Thousand Colours (2012)
  • Don’t Mention This to Anyone (2012)
  • Made in Edinburgh
  • A Good Cause

Teresa Mary ("Tessa") Ransford OBE (8 July 1938 – 2 September 2015)[1] 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.[2] The family moved back to the United Kingdom in 1944,[3] finally moving to Scotland in 1948 when her father took up the position of bursar at the Loretto School in Musselburgh.[2]

Ransford was educated and boarded at St Leonard’s School in St Andrews. She was not happy and turned to books and poetry for consolation.[4] She went on to study German and Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh.[1]

In 1959, she married Iain Kay Stiven, a minister of the Church of Scotland[1][3] and the pair lived in Pakistan until 1968 with their four children. During the 1970s, Ransford started writing and publishing poems and founded the School of Poets in 1981 as a place for poets to gather on a monthly basis to support one another.[1]

Ransford produced over fifteen volumes of poetry during her lifetime.[5]

The Scottish Poetry Library had 300 books when she started it in 1984. By the time she died, it had over 30,000.[2]

She was awarded the Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2000 for services to the Scottish Poetry Library[6] and was President of Scottish PEN from 2003 to 2006.[1]

Ransford was diagnosed with cancer in 2015 and died in Edinburgh on 2 September that year.[1]

Notable works

  • Light of the Mind (1980)
  • Shadows from the Greater Hill (1987)
  • The Nightingale Question (2004)
  • Not Just Moonshine: new and selected poems (2008)
  • Rug of a Thousand Colours (2012)
  • Don’t Mention This to Anyone (2012)
  • Made in Edinburgh
  • A Good Cause[7]

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, ISSN 0264-0856

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 The new biographical dictionary of Scottish women. Ewan, Elizabeth. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. 2018. p. 360. ISBN 9781474436298. OCLC 1057237368.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  2. 1 2 3 "Obituary: Tessa Ransford, poet and Scottish Poetry Library founder". www.scotsman.com. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
  3. 1 2 "Tessa Ransford | Poet". Scottish Poetry Library. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
  4. ↑ "Tessa Ransford | Poet". Scottish Poetry Library. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  5. ↑ "Tessa Ransford". www.saltiresociety.org.uk. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
  6. ↑ "Scottish Poetry Library founder dies". 2 September 2015. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
  7. ↑ "Tessa Ransford, OBE 1938-2015". The Royal Literary Fund. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
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