Imitation, if it is not forgery, is a fine thing. It stems from a generous impulse, and a realistic sense of what can and cannot be done.

He was political correspondent of the New Statesman where he worked alongside Christopher Hitchens Julian Barnes and Martin Amis. He was appointed Oxford Professor of Poetry in 1994 a post he held till 1999. " In response to criticisms of his comparatively slim 'Selected Poems' (2006) Fenton warned against the notion of poets churning out poetry in a regular automated fashion.

He is a former Oxford Professor of Poetry.