Sassoon's Sherston safe and sound...

Cambridge University Library has raised £1.25 million to buy the archive of Siegfried Sassoon. The World War One poet and writer, contemporary of both Robert Graves and Wilfred Owen, is best known for works such as the 'Sherston Trilogy'. The archive includes a manuscript of Sassoon's refusal to return to duty following a serious wound, as well as diaries from his schooldays to war journals. Cambridge, at which Sassoon was an undergraduate, received the documents yesterday after a fundraising campaign which was helped by a £550,000 grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund. The collection became available after the death of the poet's son in 2006.

On this day...

British writer and translator Robert Graves, died in 1985 at the age of 90. Much of his work was inspired by his experiences as a soldier in the First World World; notably his memoirs 'Goodbye to All That', and also ensured a firm friendship between himself and fellow war poet Siegfried Sassoon. Despite Graves' claim that he was predominently a poet, his most famous work, and one for which he won a James Tait Black Memorial Prize for, is a pair of novels; 'I, Claudius' and 'Claudius the God'. Both books were serialised on television, and included on the '100 Best English Language novels from 1923 to 2005' list in Time Magazine. Continuing with the Roman theme, Graves became a prominent translator of ancient works; his versions of 'The Twelve Caesars' and 'The Golden Ass', remaining popular today. In all, Graves wrote over 140 works over a period spanning 63 years.

Poets against war...

Following on from Levertov, poetry has been, and always will be, a method through which people protest against injustices in the world. From Mazisi Kunene, an anti-apartheid poet, to Siegfried Sassoon, famous for his satrical anti-war poetry, many have written to expose these situations to the public, attempting to counter apathy and rally people to their cause. Although many believe that this type of protest belongs to the 20th century, it is still being used today against the injustices of a modern society. The 'Poets Against War' society, contains contemporary poetry from members of the public about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, showing that everyone has the capacity to write, and anyone can change the world through it.