The conductor Sergei Koussevitzky asked Britten to write an opera based on a poem by George Crabbe. The poem, called “The Borough”, was about the story of Peter Grimes. The village in the poem was fictitious, but it was very much like Aldeburgh where Britten later made his home. Britten asked Montagu Slater to write the libretto based on the story of Crabbe’s poem.