Unusually for a middle-class Jewish boy, Dannie Abse attended St Illtyd's College, a working-class Catholic school in Splott.

[citation needed] Abse worked in the medical field, and was a physician in a chest clinic for over thirty years, but he is best known as a poet.

[4] Abse lived for several decades in the north-west area of London, mainly near Hampstead, where he had considerable ties.

[citation needed] In 2005, his wife Joan was killed in a car accident, while Abse suffered a broken rib.

Abse was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2012 New Year Honours for services to poetry and literature.