# David Morphet > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/David_Morphet > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/David_Morphet.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Morphet > Source revision: 1313658125 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) **David Morphet** is a poet and writer who has worked in the [Diplomatic Service](/source/Diplomatic_service), the [Department of Energy](/source/United_Kingdom_Department_of_Energy) and [private industry](/source/Private_industry). Born on 24 January 1940, he grew up in a [Pennine valley](/source/Pennines) near [Huddersfield](/source/Huddersfield). From [King James's Grammar School, Almondbury](/source/King_James's_Grammar_School,_Almondbury), he went on a history scholarship to [St John's College, Cambridge](/source/St_John's_College,_Cambridge), where he gained a Double First in English and became co-editor of the literary magazine *[Delta](/source/Delta_(poetry_magazine))*. In 1961 he entered the Diplomatic Service, serving in the [Middle East](/source/Middle_East) and [Spain](/source/Spain). In 1966–68, he was a private secretary to two foreign secretaries, [Michael Stewart](/source/Michael_Stewart,_Baron_Stewart_of_Fulham) and [George Brown](/source/George_Brown,_Baron_George-Brown) and accompanied the latter to the [Special Session](/source/Special_session) of the [United Nations](/source/United_Nations) in [New York](/source/New_York_City), following the Arab-Israeli [Six-Day War](/source/Six-Day_War). Joining the newly established [Department of Energy](/source/United_States_Department_of_Energy) in 1974, he became the UK governor at the [International Energy Agency](/source/International_Energy_Agency) in [Paris](/source/Paris) from 1983 to 1985 and from 1985 to 1989 UK governor at the [International Atomic Energy Agency](/source/International_Atomic_Energy_Agency) (IAEA) in [Vienna](/source/Vienna). As governor at the IAEA, he attended the agency's Post-Accident Review Meeting following the [Chernobyl disaster](/source/Chernobyl_disaster), and initiated safety discussions between the UK Nuclear Installations Inspectorate and its equivalents in Eastern Europe. During 1978 and 1979 he was seconded as deputy chairman (chief executive) of the [Midlands Electricity Board](/source/Midlands_Electricity), one of the twelve Area Electricity Boards in England and Wales, where he backed new computer-based systems and a streamlined management structure. Returning to the Department of Energy, he successively headed the Electricity, [Energy Policy](/source/Energy_Policy) and [Atomic Energy](/source/Atomic_Energy) divisions, advising Ministers on relations with the Electricity Council, the [Central Electricity Generating Board](/source/Central_Electricity_Generating_Board) (CEGB), the [UK Atomic Energy Authority](/source/UK_Atomic_Energy_Authority) (UKAEA) and British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL). Moving to the [private sector](/source/Private_sector) in 1989, he held senior positions in the [power](/source/Power_company) and construction companies [BICC](/source/British_Insulated_Callender's_Cables) and [Balfour Beatty](/source/Balfour_Beatty) and served on the council of the [CBI](/source/Confederation_of_British_Industry). From 1993 to 2001 he was a director of Barking Power Ltd, owner and operator of the 1000 MW combined-cycle gas-fired Barking Power Station in London. Following the [privatisation of British Rail](/source/Privatisation_of_British_Rail) in 1997, he was invited to lead a new industry-wide body, the Railway Forum, established to promote growth and common purpose through dialogue between the multiple successors to [British Rail](/source/British_Rail). He retired from this position in December 2000. With a strong interest in the treatment of [mental illness](/source/Mental_illness) and in mental aftercare, in 1972 he became a founder member of the [National Schizophrenia Fellowship](/source/National_Schizophrenia_Fellowship) ([now Rethink](/source/Now_Rethink)) and was its chairman from 1977 to 1982.[1] He has published thirteen volumes of verse, the biography of a Victorian journalist, articles on Victorian journalism, and has edited a book[2] on St John's College, Cambridge. From 2005 to 2009 he was on the Board of Magma Poetry, for which he has written reviews and articles.[3] He edited Magma 39 (Winter 2007/08 issue).[4] His verse has appeared in a number of magazines. He was the Chairman of the [Romney Street Group](/source/Romney_Street_Group), current affairs lunch club which meets weekly in the [Athenaeum](/source/Athenaeum_Club,_London), from 1997 to 2004.[5] He has written a series of poems on [Dentdale](/source/Dentdale) in the [Yorkshire Dales National Park](/source/Yorkshire_Dales_National_Park), with which both he and his wife have family associations.[6] He married Sarah Gillian Sedgwick in 1968. They have three children and five grandchildren. ## Bibliography ### Biography Louis Jennings MP, Editor of the New York Times and Tory Democrat (Notion Books:2001) ISBN 0-9541573-0-3 ### Poetry *Seventy-Seven Poems* (Notion Books:2002) ISBN 0-9541573-1-1 *The Angel and the Fox* (Notion Books:2003) ISBN 0-9541573-2-X *Approaching Animals from A to Z* (Notion Books:2004) ISBN 0-9541573-3-8 *52 Ways of Looking* (Notion Books:2005) ISBN 0-9541573-4-6 *The Silence of Green* (Notion Books:2007) ISBN 0-9541573-5-4 *The Maze: a daydream in five cantos* (Notion Books:2009) ISBN 0-9541573-6-2 *The Intruders and other poems* (Notion Books:2010) ISBN 0-9541573-7-0 *Lyrics from the Periodic Table* (Notion Books:2011) ISBN 978-0-9541573-8-8 *A sequence from the Cyclades* (Notion Books:2012) ISBN 978-0-9541573-9-5 *Night Train to Utopia* (Notion Books:2013) ISBN 978-0-9575458-0-9 *Satires and Legacies* (Notion Books:2014) ISBN 978-0-9575458-1-6 *Homecoming by Microlight* (Notion Books:2015) ISBN 978-0-9575458-2-3 *Brief Encounters* (Notion Books:2016) ISBN 978-0-9575458-3-0 *The Wranglers and other poems* (Notion Books 2017) ISBN 978-0-9575458-4-7 *Another Planet Earth (*Notion Books 2018) ISBN 978-0-9575458-5-4 *Goodbye to Angel and Fox, and other poems* (Notion Books 2021) ISBN 978-0-9575458-6-1 *Ring of Islands* (Notion Books 2022) No ISBN *Twelve Poems of the Sea* (Notion Books 2023) No ISBN 'Political Comment in the Quarterly Review after Croker: Gladstone, Salisbury and Jennings': Victorian Periodicals Review (ISSN [0709-4698](https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0709-4698): Vol 36, No 2, Summer 2003: pp 109–134) Entries on Croker, Gifford, Jennings, Lockhart, and The Quarterly Review in Dictionary of Nineteenth Century Journalism (2009: ISBN 978-0-7123-5039-6) 'John Wilson Croker's Image of France in the Quarterly Review': electronic British Library Journal article no 1, 2012 ### Edited St John's College, Cambridge – Excellence and Diversity (2007): Third Millennium Publishing Ltd. ISBN 1-903942-56-X ### Sources Who's Who A & C Black 2017 ## References 1. ["NSF/Rethink History Booklet"](https://web.archive.org/web/20061231081734/http://www.mentalhealthshop.org/document.rm?id=2174). Archived from [the original](http://www.mentalhealthshop.org/document.rm?id=2174) on 31 December 2006. Retrieved 27 March 2010. 1. ["St John's College: Excellence and Diversity"](https://web.archive.org/web/20101204085655/http://www.joh.cam.ac.uk/johnian/publications/excellence_diversity/). Archived from [the original](http://www.joh.cam.ac.uk/johnian/publications/excellence_diversity/) on 4 December 2010. Retrieved 27 March 2010. 1. [Poetic Satire](http://magmapoetry.com/archive/magma-39/articles/poetic-satire) 1. [Magma 39](http://magmapoetry.com/archive/magma-39/)) 1. Morris, R.M. (2017). *The Romney Street Group, 1917–2017: A Centenary History*. Strathmore. ISBN 9781909277144. 1. [Dentdale](http://www.dentdale.com/Poems/poems.HTM) ## External links - [Louis John Jennings](/source/Louis_John_Jennings) - [Notion Books](http://www.notionbooks.co.uk) - [www.poetrymagazines.org.uk/magazine/issue.asp?id=593] - [www.victorianweb.org/misc/morphet.html] --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [David Morphet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Morphet) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Morphet?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.