He was born in Cape Town, South Africa, and emigrated to London in the early 1960s.
Goddard explains that Clouts' writing style illustrates relations to elements of human experience.
[4] His poems were being published in magazines like Jewish Affairs, Standpunte, Contrast, and New Coin and he started gaining popularity.
[2] His beginning poems were published in his former school, South African College's, magazine.
[7] In 1966, Sydney Clouts was awarded the Ingrid Jonker Prize, for the best debut of Afrikaans or English poetry, for his book One Life.