My father, Brian Dann, who has died aged 90, was a poet and publisher of poetry, who, with my mother, organised thousands of poetry readings and other cultural activities in south London.
Born in Camberwell, Brian acquired from his father, Albert, a jeweller, and his mother, Sylvia (nee Lee), a lifelong enthusiasm for learning. His interests ranged from cosmology, maths and physics through to collage, drawing and poetry.
After the family moved to Croydon, he attended Beulah Road infant school in Thornton Heath, then Selhurst grammar (1937-44). When he was called up for second world war service in 1944, he was sent to the coalfields of County Durham to dig, rather than do battle. He enthusiastically supported the Attlee government’s nationalisation of the coalmines after the war. On his return to London, he started a degree in zoology at King’s College but dropped out.
In the early 1950s he was living the poet’s life by night, hanging out at various beat venues in south London, while working as an industrial chemist in the day, at Rotameter on the Purley Way. In 1957 he met, fell in love with and married Joyce Roddis, then working as a draughtswoman, also at Rotameter. Despite an inauspicious start – Joyce’s ex-partner firebombed Brian’s home to “put him off” – they enjoyed a happy partnership for 53 years and she was a muse to him throughout his life.
Brian worked for various commercial firms, including Metal Box, where he qualified as a chartered statistician. In the mid-1960s he began work for the London Housing Consortium – a public-sector organisation providing local authorities and housing associations with procurement advice.
His interest in writing poetry continued and he became a publisher through his Poetry in Croydon magazine.
Following Joyce’s death in 2010, Brian moved to Seaford, East Sussex, where he continued to take part in many cultural activities. He was modest, generous and open-minded – and very funny, too, with a wicked, wry sense of humour.
He is survived by his children, Bunty and me, and his grandchildren, Kris and Safia.
