Grahame Clive Davies CVO (born 1964) is a Welsh poet, author, editor, librettist, literary critic and former journalist and courtier.
[1][2][3] After gaining a degree in English Literature at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, he qualified as a journalist with the Thomson Organisation at Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
As a librettist, he has carried out many major commissions for classical composers including Sir Karl Jenkins, Paul Mealor, Sarah Class, Debbie Wiseman, Tom Harrold, Roderick Williams, Peter Boyer, Nigel Hess and Joanna Gill.
For the 2023 coronation of Charles III, Davies' text Sacred Fire was set to a composition by Sarah Class and performed by South African soprano Pretty Yende.
[5] He also provided the Welsh words for the Veni Creator Spiritus, and the lyrics for the Song of Thanksgiving and Dedication, by Joanna Gill for the Honours of Scotland service on July 5.
In 1997, his first volume, Adennill Tir (Barddas), a book arising from the 11 years he spent in Merthyr Tydfil in the south Wales Valleys, won the Harri Webb Memorial Prize.
It quickly went to a second edition and won the Wales Arts Council's 2002 Book of the Year award at the Hay on Wye Festival of Literature, together with a prize of £3,000.