Dannie Abse

Dannie Abse (1923- ), British poet, playwright, and novelist. He was born Daniel Abse in Cardiff of a Jewish family, and educated locally, reading medicine at the University of South Wales, and training at King's College, London, and Westminster Hospital, London. His account of his childhood in Wales is found in the autobiographical Ash on a Young Man's Sleeve (1954). He has twice been the recipient of the Welsh Arts Council award (1971, 1987), and of the Cholmondeley award in 1985, and has been president of the Poetry Society since 1978 and a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature since 1983. His first published book of poems, After Every Green Thing, appeared in 1949; and he has since published more than ten volumes of verse, as well as a sizeable body of other work including plays, essays, and novels.