Kate Esther Tempest (born 22 December 1986) is an English poet, spoken word artist and playwright. In 2013 she won the Ted Hughes Award for her work Brand New Ancients，Tempest grew up in Brockley, South London, one of five children. She describes growing up in "a shitty part of town, but in a nice house where there was always food". Her father was a labourer who went on to train as a criminal lawyer. She enjoyed her primary school experience but was unhappy at secondary school. She left school with no A levels but cites her English teacher Mr Bradshaw as an encouraging influence who read her early poetry and gave her books to inspire her. She says she had a "wayward youth", living in squats, "hanging around on picket lines rapping at riot cops". She worked in a record shop from age 14 to 18. At 16, she studied music at Croydon’s Brit School for performing arts and at Goldsmiths college, where she studied poetry for a time. She describes the London marches to call an end to the Iraq war as a point of disillusionment when she saw that the message of millions of people did not change the direction of the war