If there were a laureate of isolation and lockdown, and a poet to get us through, it would be Stevie Smith.

Born in 1902, Smith lived a seemingly unremarkable life with her aunt in Palmers Green, North London, where she wrote three novels and some of the most individual poetry of the 20th century.

Her unique mix of eccentricity and existential doom brought her great acclaim from poets such as Sylvia Plath and Seamus Heaney. She was awarded the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 1969.