Nicholas Blake
1904 – 1972
Nicholas Blake was born under the name Cecily Day-Lewis on twenty seventh April 1904. Cecily Day-Lewis was a poet from Ireland and also the Pet of United Kingdom from 1968-1972. He used the pseudonym Nicholas Blake to write mystery stories.CECILY DAY-LEWIS.As said, he was born in Ireland,Ballintubbert. His parents went by the names Frank Day-Lewis and Kathleen Blake. The name Day-Lewis came as a result of his father taking up the name of his biological father, Day, and the adoptive father’s name, Lewis, thus Day-Lewis. In 1906, his mother died. He was then brought up by his father in London, assisted by an aunt.Cecil studied at a school known as Sherborne and at a college known as Wadham College, Oxford. In Oxford, he encountered W. H.Auden’s circle and assisted in the editing of Oxford Poetry in 1927. Consequently, as a poet he had his first collection, Beechen Vigil poems appear in 1925 which marked the beginning of his successful poetry career.His marriage to Constance Mary King in 1928 followed closely as he was employed in a number of schools, namely; Larchfield School, Lomond School and Helensburgh just to mention a few as a schoolmaster. In 1951, his marriage ended after a love affair in 1940’s with Rosamond Lehmann who was a novelist. He later on got married to Jill Balcon who was an actress.