He published six full poetry collections, and after retiring from a senior lectureship in English at Liverpool Hope University, wrote numerous books of literary criticism.
For some years after graduating he taught English to overseas students in Cambridge, where he met his German wife, Monika Weydert, and where his two children were born.
During 1994, he was poet-in-residence for six months in Tasmania, and in 1996 a festschrift[1] edited by Angela Topping was put together to celebrate his 60th birthday, with contributors such as U.
A. Fanthorpe, Deryn Rees-Jones, Roger McGough, Adrian Henri and John Lucas.
[2] He was also a noted children's poet, publishing two collections and appearing in hundreds of anthologies.