A painter, poet and engraver, William Blake (1757-1827) was born in London. Poetical Sketches, his first volume of poetry, was published in 1783 and was followed by several of his best-known works: Songs of Innocence (1789), The Book of Thiel (1789), The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790-3), Songs of Experience (1794) and Jerusalem (1804-20).
James Fenton was born in Lincoln in 1949 and educated ...