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Kathleen Raine (1908-2003) was born in London and spent most of her childhood in Ilford, Essex. For a few years from the outbreak of World War I, she stayed with an aunt in Northumberland, where she loved the simple, strict village life. Kathleen's mother was Scottish and taught her Scotland's songs and ballads. Her father taught English in a local high school, encouraging Kathleen's interest in language and literature.
Although passionate about poetry, she went to Cambridge to read natural sciences. Far from her parents' protective eyes, she flung herself into the student life, somewhere between bohemian and nihilistic.
Kathleen was a beautiful woman and made two early marriages, having two children with her second husband, Charles Madge.