Over the years, Benjamin Zephaniah has fought fiercely against institutional racism, refused an OBE, worked with Nelson Mandela, lectured at university and even enjoyed a role in Peaky Blinders. Of course, it's his politically charged poetry that he'll be best remembered for. As you can see from the below clip of him reciting "Talking Turkeys", Zephaniah's work is entirely unique and centres around a musicality that is often not seen in poetry.

"I basically come from the school of what is known as 'dub poetry,'" Zephaniah explained in a recent interview, "which means poetry very closely related to reggae music. The difference between dub poetry and a lot of other poetry is that it can be performed with music and without music. And even when you perform it without music, you still hear the musicality of it. And so I got involved in reggae music when I started doing what we call toasting–a kind of rap–kind of free styling on sound systems. And you'd just pick up the microphone and you'd just go with it–make commentary of the day, make commentary on people who are in the hall, whatever. And one of the things about reggae music, consistently, is it has always spoken on social issues; it's a lot about human rights. And my poetry and music have grown side by side really."