The Oxford University Poetry Society administers the annual Martin Starkie Prize in his honour.

Martin Starkie was born in Burnley and educated at Burnley Grammar School and Exeter College, Oxford, under critic Nevill Coghill.

[2][3] He went on to write with Nevill Coghill and composers Richard Hill and John Hawkins, and to produce and direct Canterbury Tales, based on Coghill's translation of the original, first in Oxford, then in the West End, on Broadway and in Australia.

He is represented, as the character of Geoffrey Chaucer, by a bas-relief image on the plinth of the Chaucer statue in Canterbury which is situated at the junction of Best Lane and the High Street.

At the time of his death, he was living at Horbury Villa, 85 Ladbroke Road, Notting Hill, London.