Gael Turnbull

Who was Gael Turnbull?

Gael Turnbull was a Scottish poet who was an important precursor of the British Poetry Revival.

Turnbull was born in Edinburgh and grew up in the North of England and in Canada, where he moved with his parents at the beginning of World War II. He studied Natural Science at Cambridge University and graduated in Medicine from the University of Pennsylvania in 1951.

As a doctor and anaesthetist, he worked in Ontario; London, England; Ventura, California; Worcester; and Barrow-in-Furness.

His poetry first appeared in a book in Canada in 1954. Trio, an anthology of poems by Eli Mandel, Gael Turnbull, and Phyllis Webb published by Raymond Souster's Contact Press. His poems also appeared in Origin, Cid Corman's magazine.

In 1957, Turnbull started Migrant Press, one of the first British-run presses to focus on poets in the modernist tradition. His work was featured in the groundbreaking Revival anthology Children of Albion: Poetry of the Underground in Britain. His own books include A Gathering of Poems 1950-1980 and Rattle of Scree: Poems. He was also published in the anthologies The New British Poetry, Other: British and Irish Poetry since 1970 and Anthology of Twentieth-Century British and Irish Poetry.