Geoffrey Chaucer, who died in 1400, was the first writer to be buried in what became Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey, London. Not for his writing though - he was accorded the honour because of his day job as Clerk of Works in the Palace of Westminster, organising building projects for the king. In 1556 he was moved to a grander tomb and the area thereafter was reserved for poets and writers. Now 25 people are buried, or had their ashes interred, there, including Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy and Laurence Olivier.
