Robert Henry Robinson, [Bob] (1927–2011), writer and broadcaster, was born on 17 December 1927 at 13 Moss Lane, Orrell Park, Liverpool, the only child of Ernest Redfern Robinson (1887–1961), accountant, and his wife, Johanna, née Hogan (b. 1893), daughter of Joseph Hogan, blacksmith. At the time of his birth registration his parents lived at 251 Stanley Road, Liverpool, but the family moved to Malden, Surrey, and Robinson was educated at Raynes Park grammar school. After national service in the West African Army Service Corps, based in Nigeria, he went to Exeter College, Oxford, to read English. At Oxford he was in his element: he edited Isis magazine, acted, mixed with a lively and ambitious group, among them Robin Day and Shirley Catlin (later Shirley Williams, the politician), and edited Poetry from Oxford (1951).

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