SUPPORTER

The Director of the Freud Museum London and former curator of the Keats and Shelley House Rome writes:

‘I'm delighted to add my name to the list of supporters. Two centuries after his death Percy Bysshe Shelley's work is still read, loved, and studied all over the world. It's only right that Shelley's hometown of Horsham remembers and celebrates him, and reminds everyone where it all began.'

SUPPORTER

The poet, children's author, presenter, political columnist, broadcaster and activist and former Children's Laureate Michael Rosen writes:

‘Shelley is one of our greatest writers and I support 100% the idea that he should have a memorial to him close to his place of birth.’

PATRON

SMP patron Barry Smith is director of the South Downs Poetry Festival and co-ordinator of the Festival of Chichester.

‘I’m delighted to be a patron of The Shelley Memorial Project and fully support its aim of establishing a permanent memorial to the great Romantic poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley, in his hometown of Horsham.

My background is in theatre, education, arts festival production and, of course, poetry. For the last decade, I’ve been committed to promoting arts festivals, co-ordinating the Festival of Chichester and directing the South Downs Poetry Festival as well as curating the poetry for Blakefest. I’m an Honorary Friend of the Keats-Shelley Memorial Association.

In 2021, I was shortlisted for the Culture Matters Bread & Roses Songwriting and Spoken Word Award for my poem, The Masks of Anarchy, which is an epic/satiric take on the pandemic inspired by Shelley. ‘

PATRON

SMP patron Kelvin Everest is Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Liverpool, an editor of the Poems of Shelley, and a member of the 2022 Shelley Conference advisory board.

'I am absolutely delighted to be involved in the Horsham project to create a permanent public memorial to the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Such a memorial makes a most fitting recognition of one of our greatest poets, in this year which is the bicentenary of his death. In addition to the pleasure and intellectual stimulus his poetry has brought to readers over two centuries, Shelley has come to stand as an inspiration to generations through his championing of democracy and equality, both in his own country, and through his powerful influence across the world, in such countries as India, South Africa, Italy, and Japan. Today his presence and influence is truly international, and a public memorial to his standing, in his home town of Horsham, is long overdue.'