Fiona Sampson was first a concert violinist, then studied at the Universities of Oxford, where she won the Newdigate Prize, and Nijmegen, where she received a PhD in the philosophy of language. This research arose from her pioneering residencies in health care. Her latest of her seventeen books is Rough Music, shortlisted for the 2010 Forward and T.S. Eliot Prizes. In 2009 she received a Cholmondeley Award and became an FRSL. She is editor of Poetry Review. She gave the Newcastle/Bloodaxe Poetry Lectures at Newcastle University in 2010, published in 2011 as Music Lessons.