15 Facts About Hugo Williams

Hugo Williams was born on Hugh Anthony Mordaunt Vyner Williams on 20 February 1942 and is an English poet, journalist and travel writer.

Hugo Williams received the T S Eliot Prize in 1999 and Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in 2004.

Hugo Williams was the eldest child of the actor and playwright Hugh Williams and his second wife, the model, actress and playwright Margaret Vyner.

Hugh Williams enjoyed success as an actor during the 1930s, but his career waned following his service in the Second World War, during which he sustained injuries.

Hugo Williams declared bankruptcy in the early 1950s but the family's fortunes revived when he and his wife began collaborating as playwrights.

Hugo Williams received an Eric Gregory Award for his first book of poems, Symptoms of Loss, which was published in 1965.

Hugo Williams's poems appeared in The Review and The New Review, literary magazines edited by Hamilton in the 1960s and 1970s.

In 1971, Hugo Williams received a Cholmondeley Award, which is given annually by the Society of Authors to "recognise the achievement and distinction of individual poets" chosen "for their general body of work and contribution to poetry".

In 1980, for his fourth poetry book, Love-Life, Hugo Williams shared the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize with George Szirtes.

Hugo Williams's style evolved away from "Review-style lyrical spareness" while his subject matter became more personal and intimate in nature, culminating in his 1985 collection Writing Home, which the poet Mick Imlah called a "classic of creative autobiography".

Hugo Williams worked as an editor at The London Magazine from 1961 to 1970.

Hugo Williams was a regular contributor to the "Freelance" column in The Times Literary Supplement from its beginning in 1988.

Hugo Williams has been married to the singer and writer Hermine Demoriane since 1965.

Hugo Williams bought a house in the Islington district of London in 1966 and has lived there ever since.

Hugo Williams received a successful kidney transplant in 2014, after undergoing dialysis for several years.