29 Feb John Milton
John Milton is remembered and admired for his epic blank-verse poem Paradise Lost (1667). Born in London in 1608, he had expected to become an Anglican priest, but instead he was drawn to writing and philosophical studies. In 1638-39 he toured France and Italy, meeting many leading intellectuals on the day. He returned to England earlier than planned because of the growing political unrest that ultimately led to the Civil War (1642-51).
Following the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, Milton lived quietly in London except that, during the Great Plague of 1665, he retreated to the 16th Century Milton’s Cottage in Chalfont St Giles (25 miles northwest of London), his only surviving home. It was at the cottage that he completed Paradise Lost. Milton died in London in 1874 aged 65. He is commemorated by a bust in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey and a memorial window in nearby St Margaret’s Church. He’s buried at St Giles-without-Cripplegate in the City of London.