Francis Warner (author)

Francis Robert Le Plastrier Warner (born 21 October 1937) is an English poet, playwright, musician, and scholar. Warner received early notice for his lyrical poetry but has focused most of his later literary career on Agora, a cycle of plays that explores the development of Western culture up to the late Twentieth Century. An Emeritus Fellow of St. Peter's College, Oxford, and Honorary Fellow of St. Catharine's College, Cambridge,[1] Warner was also a noted advocate for experimental theatre, leading attempts during the 1960s and 1970s to establish a Samuel Beckett Theatre for avant garde theatre production in Oxford.[2][3]

Early life

Francis Warner was born in Bishopthorpe, Yorkshire, England,[4] to Reverend Hugh Compton Warner and Nancy Le Plastrier Owen.[5] After serving as vicar of Bishopthorpe from 1932-1938,[6] Rev Warner became vicar of St Martin of Tours in Epsom in 1938,[7] an incumbency he held until his resignation in 1950 to become education secretary of the Church of England Moral Welfare Council.[8] Rev Warner and his family lived in The Old Vicarage, Epsom, throughout World War II,[9] an experience recalled later by Francis in the collection Beauty for Ashes: Selected Prose and Related Documents[10] and the text of David Goode’s Blitz Requiem.[11] The elder Warner, who had become an honorary canon of Guildford Cathedral in 1948, died in London, age 51, after a long illness, on 1 July 1956.[12]

Francis was educated at Christ’s Hospital, London College of Music, and St Catharine's College, Cambridge. Whilst at Cambridge, Warner was C.S. Lewis's last graduate student.[13]

Writing

Warner produced several volumes of lyrical poetry early in his career and was honoured for his poetry as the recipient of the Messing Award (now known as the St. Louis Literary Award) in 1972 by the St. Louis University Library Associates. Warner began writing plays in the early 1970s, creating a body of theatrical work that would later be styled as the dramatic play cycle Agora. In addition to the plays in Agora, Warner continued writing poetry, publishing several volumes throughout his later literary years.

Agora

The dramatic cycle Agora encompasses the entirely of Warner's literary output as a dramatist. Consisting of 16 individual plays, loosely following a chronological order of action, Agora tracks the development of Western culture from ancient Greece to the present.

Agora: A Dramatic Epic
TitlePublication YearGrouping
Healing Nature — The Athens of Pericles1988none
Virgil and Caesar1993Roman Trilogy
Moving Reflections1983Roman Trilogy
Light Shadows1980Roman Trilogy
Byzantium1990none
Living Creation — Medici Florence1985Europa Tetralogy
King Francis I1995Europa Tetralogy
Goethe’s Weimar1997Europa Tetralogy
Rembrandt’s Mirror2000Europa Tetralogy
A Conception of Love1978none
Emblems1972Maquettes for the Requiem
Troat1972Maquettes for the Requiem
Lumen1972Maquettes for the Requiem
Lying Figures1972Requiem Trilogy
Killing Time1976Requiem Trilogy
Meeting Ends1974Requiem Trilogy

References
  1. https://colinsmythe.co.uk/books/beauty-for-ashes/
  2. David Tucker, A Dream and Its Legacies: The Samuel Beckett Theatre Project, Oxford C.1967-76 (Colin Smythe 2013)
  3. https://www.osbttrust.com/trust.html
  4. International Who's Who in Poetry 2004
  5. https://www.genealogy.com/ftm/l/e/p/Vincent-Le-plastrier/GENE1-0015.html
  6. E.H. Eckel, Book Review, Nancy Le Plastrier Warner, Hugh Compton Warner: The Story of a Vocation (London: S.P.C.K. 1958), in 29 Historical Magazine of the Protestant Episcopal Church 98-99 (1960).
  7. Roger Martin (2019). The Rectors & Vicars of St Martin of Tours, Epsom, Epsom & Ewell History Explorer. Retrieved 3 September 2020.
  8. Brian Bouchard (Feb. 2013). The Old Vicarage, Epsom & Ewell History Explorer. Retrieved 3 September 2020.
  9. Brian Bouchard (Feb. 2013). The Old Vicarage, Epsom & Ewell History Explorer. Retrieved 3 September 2020.
  10. https://colinsmythe.co.uk/books/beauty-for-ashes/
  11. https://www.classicfm.com/radio/shows-presenters/full-works-concert/full-works-concert-thursday-3-october-blitz-requie/
  12. Brian Bouchard (Feb. 2013). The Old Vicarage, Epsom & Ewell History Explorer. Retrieved 3 September 2020.
  13. C.S. Lewis and the Church: Essays in Honour of Walter Hooper (London: T&T Clark 2011), p. x
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