Period 1980–present Role Poet Albums Homing In, Sharp Stories | Name Ian McMillan Education Staffordshire University | |
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Born 21 January 1956 (age 68)
Darfield, Barnsley, Yorkshire ( 1956-01-21 ) Occupation Poet, journalist, playwright, broadcaster Books Talking Myself Home: M, Dad - the Donkey's on Fire, I found this shirt, Chelp and Chunter, Perfect catch Similar People Iain Macmillan, Simon Armitage, Roger McGough, Charlie Williams Profiles | ||
Ian McMillan (born 21 January 1956) is an English poet, journalist, playwright, and broadcaster. He is known for his strong and distinctive Barnsley-area accent and his characteristic manner of speech. He lives in Darfield, the town of his birth.
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Background
McMillan was born in Darfield, South Yorkshire. He attended Low Valley Junior School and Wath Grammar School and graduated in Modern Studies from North Staffordshire Polytechnic in 1978. He started performing on the live poetry circuit in the 1970s. He has had several volumes of his own poetry published, for both adults and children. He is regarded as an enthusiastic advocate of poetry.
In addition he has had journalism published in Q magazine and Mojo magazine, and writes a weekly column in his home town's local newspaper, The Barnsley Chronicle. He is styled "poet in residence" to his hometown football club Barnsley FC. His play Sister Josephine Kicks the Habit, based on the work of fellow Yorkshireman Jake Thackray premiered in 2005. In June 2010 McMillan was appointed poet-in-residence at the English National Opera.
TV and radio
McMillan hosts the weekly show The Verb and Proms variation Adverb on BBC Radio 3, "dedicated to investigating spoken words around the globe". He has been described in the BBC's publication Radio Times as the "22nd Most Powerful Person in Radio". He is also a regular roving contributor to BBC Radio 4 Today Programme where he was at one stage dubbed as the programme's "Election Laureate". He co-wrote the Radio 4 comedy series Street and Lane with Dave Sheasby which first aired 2005–2007 and has since been repeated. During January 2007, he presented a BBC Radio 3 series on writing, Ian McMillan's Writing Lab, in which he talked to a range of authors which included Julian Barnes, Mark Ravenhill, Howard Jacobson and Michael Rosen. He has also been a panellist on BBC Radio 4's long-running game show Just A Minute.
In November 2010, McMillan was the castaway on the BBC Radio 4 show Desert Island Discs hosted by Kirsty Young. His choice of music included John Cage's silent piece "4’33”" and Andy Stewart singing "Donald Where's Your Troosers?".
He is a frequent guest on Newsnight Review, The Mark Radcliffe Show, The Today Programme, You & Yours, The Culture Show, Never Mind The Full Stops and Have I Got News For You?. He narrates The Museum on BBC 2 on Thursdays. He has also been employed to provide voice-overs in advertisements for a laundry detergent and a branded food product.
Poetry competitions
McMillan is a regular judge of poetry competitions. In December 2006, McMillan judged the "Central Trains Poetry Competition" and the winners, from the Royal Grammar School Worcester, were awarded a signed copy of his poem "Take me on a Christmas Trip on Central Trains" at Birmingham Snow Hill Station. He was also a judge in the Foyle Young Poets Awards 2008, and went as a teacher with the winners for a week to The Hurst, an Arvon centre based in Shropshire, as part of their prize. He judged the 2009 Cardiff International Poetry Competition for the award ceremony in June.
In 2005, as "Poet Laureate" for the "Three Cities" (the "Three Cities" in this case being Nottingham, Leicester and Derby), he was involved in the "Three Cities Create and Connect scheme", which included a regional writing competition. The project resulted in a now-scarce publication, A Tale of 3 Cities : New Writing from Derby, Leicester and Nottingham. McMillan contributed a foreword and two original pieces, "Here.Now.Then" and "The Laureate Reflects" as well as co-authoring (with six regional writers) "Three Cities Chain Poem".
Yorkshire dialect work
In 2007, McMillan published a book named Collins Chelp and Chunter: a Guide to the Tyke Tongue. This was a compilation of words that are used in the Yorkshire dialect as well as a few pieces of Yorkshire humour and illustrations. Many words are pinned down to specific areas of Yorkshire or specific towns or villages; one word, lenerky, that means "soft or floppy", is even ascribed to Grange Moor, a very small village in Kirklees, West Yorkshire near Wakefield between the towns of Barnsley and Huddersfield.
The Ian McMillan Orchestra
Together with the composer Luke Carver Goss, McMillan was the driving force behind The Ian McMillan Orchestra a music and spoken-word ensemble who released two CDs. The group disbanded in 2012, but McMillan and Goss are continuing to work as a duo.