Poet Anne Ridler dies

Ms Ridler has published 10 collections of poems

UK poet Anne Ridler, once a protegée of TS Eliot, has died at the age of 89.

She began writing with Eliot's encouragement and published her first volume of poetry in 1939.

Although her serious and spiritual poetry was widely anthologised in the 1940s, she largely dropped from public attention until her Collected Poems was published in 1995.

"Some of her most effective poems concern family relationships and her love for husband and children," said a spokesman for Carcanet, who publish her Collected Poems.

Ms Ridler also translated opera librettos and in recent years produced versions of three Mozart operas: Cosi Fan Tutte, Don Giovanni and The Marriage of Figaro.

In June 2001 Ms Ridler was made an OBE for her services to literature.

Journalist

The Observer once described Anne Ridler as "one of the best poets of her generation".

Her poetry was influenced both by the major figures of her youth - Louis MacNeice and WH Auden - and the devotional writers of the 16th and 17th Centuries.

Born in 1912, she first intended to be a journalist, but started work at Faber & Fabers publishing house under TS Eliot, then one of the company's editors.

Eliot encouraged her to write poetry, and she in turn repaid the compliment by remembering him in her memoirs of her time at Fabers, Working For TS Eliot.

Another enthusiasm of Ms Ridler's was verse plays, of which she wrote several.

She is survived by her husband of 63 years, Vivian Ridler, and four children.