Alistair Elliot was was a British librarian, poet and translator.

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Elliot was born in Liverpool, son of a Scottish family doctor and an English mother, and educated at Asheville School in the United States, Fettes College, Edinburgh, and Christ Church, Oxford.

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Elliot was a vegetable invoice clerk in Covent Garden market, night sterilizer in a food factory, waiter, film critic, supply teacher, actor (with the English Children's Theatre under Caryl Jenner) and finally librarian in Kensington, Keele, Shiraz, and lastly at Newcastle University.

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Elliot wrote nine books, but is best known for his translation of Euripides's MEDEA performed in theatres in London before transferring to Broadway with Diana Rigg in the leading role.