Dannie Abse

Dannie Abse was a poet, author, doctor and playwright. He wrote and edited more than sixteen books of poetry, as well as fiction and a range of other publications. He was the author of Ash on a Young Man’s Sleeve and several autobiographical volumes, including Goodbye, Twentieth Century, published by Pimlico in 2001 to critical acclaim. In 2003 his New and Collected Poems received the Special Commendation of the Poetry Book Society. He was president of the Welsh Academy of Letters and was also awarded a CBE. Speak, Old Parrot (Hutchinson Random House), shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize 2013, marked his 90th birthday. He died in 2014, at the age of 91. Author photo provided by Poetry Archive.