Frances Margaret Hooker (who adopted and wrote under the surname of her first husband,
Michael Horovitz) was born in
Walthamstow, London, in 1938 but moved with her family to
Nottingham in 1942 when her father was appointed manager of a munitions factory there. In 1947 they returned to London and Frances attended
Walthamstow School for Girls. She went on to
Bristol University to study English and Drama and then to the
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. As a reader and presenter for the
BBC, she acquired a reputation for care of preparation and quality of delivery. Her poetry has been described as "not that of the 'age' but of the earth" by
Anne Stevenson. However, according to
Peter Levi, such is her economy of means in the poems "that one runs the risk of not noticing how effective they are"; the effect of her writing is cumulative and "adds up to a shadow of something more vast and powerful than any individual work". Her writing gives voice principally to perceptions of the natural world, but also ancient history and human relationships within its framework. Frances married two poets: Michael Horovitz in 1964 and Roger Garfitt just before her death in 1983. Her only child
Adam Horovitz, also a poet, was born in 1971. She herself did not really start writing poetry until shortly after marrying Michael. Much of her paid work was in teaching part-time in schools and reading or performing the work of others on stage, radio and television. In the broadcasting world she started as the protégée of
George MacBeth. In 1970 she and Michael bought the cottage of Mullions in the
Slad Valley, where she remained based until the end of 1980. After that she and Adam moved to join Roger Garfitt in
Sunderland, where she was eventually diagnosed with skin cancer in her left ear. Operations and other treatments failed to stop its spread and she died in the
Royal Marsden hospital at the age of 45. ==Publications==