Ted Hughes
Born: 1930; Died 1998
Poet Laureate 1984-1999
Works include: Crow (1970), Tales from Ovid (1997), Birthday Letters (1998)
Sales in 1998-99: 172,174

Seamus Heaney
Born: 1939.
Won Nobel Prize for literature 1995.
Poet in residence at Harvard University
Works include: Death of a Naturalist (1966), The Spirit Level (1996)
Sales: 34,690

Carol Ann Duffy
Born: 1955
Winner of the Whitbread Poetry Award 1993 and Forward Poetry Award 1993
Works include: Standing Female Nude (1985), The Other Country (1990)
Sales: 22,364

Pam Ayres
Born: 1948
A winner of Opportunity Knocks in 1977
Works include: Thoughts of a Late Night Knitter (1978), With These Hands (1998)
Sales: 19,054

Wendy Cope
Born: 1945
Former primary school teacher
Works include: Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis (1986), Serious Concerns (1992)
Sales: 18,011

John Hegley
Born: 1963
Works include: Glad to Wear Glasses (1990), Love Cuts (1995)
Sales: 15,274

Roger McGough
Born: 1937
Pioneer Liverpool poet who wrote lyrics for Wind in the Willows on Broadway 1985-86
Works include: Watchwords (1969), The Spotted Unicorn (1998)
Sales: 13,929

Simon Armitage
Born: 1963
Works include: Human Geography (1986), Around Robinson (1991)
Sales: 12,889

Spike Milligan Born: 1918
Founder member of the Goons
Works include: Fleas, Knees and Hidden Elephants (1995)
Sales: 9,123

Andrew Motion
Present Poet Laureate
Born: 26 October 1952
Works include: The Pleasure Steamers (1978), Selected poems (1998)
Sales:5,995

Benjamin Zephaniah
Born: 1958
Renowned performance poet
Works include: The Dread Affair (1985), City Psalms (1992)
Sales: 4,439

Elizabeth Jennings
Born: 18 July 1926
Won the Somerset Maugham Award in 1956
Works include: A Way of Looking (1955), A Spell of Words (1997)
Sales: 2,804

Les Murray
Winner of the T S Eliot Prize 1997
Born: 17 October 1938
Works include: Collected Poems (1976), Subhuman Redneck Poems (1996)
Sales: 2,718

Jo Shapcott
Born: 1953
Twice winner of the National Poetry Competition
Works include: Electroplating the Baby (1988), Phrase Book (1992)
Sales: 559

Fleur Adcock
Born: 1934
Works include: The Eye of the Hurricane (1964), Time Zones (1991)
Sales: 200