Michael Standen Papers

Collection of Michael Standen, including manuscripts and drafts for his own novels and collections, correspondence files, engagement diaries, notebooks, photographs and copies of journals.

Michael (Mick) Standen was born near London in 1937 and educated in Essex (Buckhurst Hill County High School, 1948-1954), Nottingham (High Pavement Grammar School) and Cambridge (Queens' College, 1958-1961). His first novel, Start Somewhere, was published in 1965, and was followed by four further novels in the 1970s. From the 1960s, he published poems and short stories in a variety of journals, with his first collection of poetry published in 1991 (as Time' s Fly-Past).

In addition to his own writing, Mick Standen edited the journal Other Poetry from 1995 until 2008 and was a committee member of Colpitts Poetry. He worked in Further and Adult Education, from 1977 to 1995 as District Secretary of the Northern District of the Workers' Educational Association (WEA).

The collection has not yet been sorted or catalogued. For this reason, it is not normally possible to consult the collection.

Donated June 2018 (accession Misc.2017/18:106)

The Michael Standen Papers are currently being catalogued, but no lists are currently available or included within the collection.

Permission to make any published use of material from the collection must be sought in advance from the Sub-Librarian, Special Collections (e-mail PG.Library@durham.ac.uk) and, where appropriate, from the copyright owner. The Library will assist where possible with identifying copyright owners, but responsibility for ensuring copyright clearance rests with the user of the material.

The contents of the collection have not yet been fully appraised.

Files and photographs from the Colpitts Poetry group are within the Colpitts Poetry Readings Archive.

Records of the Northern District of the WEA are at Tyne and Wear Archives (collection reference E.WEA1).