He has published six collections of poetry, all with Cape (Random House), and has won the Whitbread Poetry Award and the Forward Prize, as well as major prizes from the Arts Council and Society of Authors. He has been shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize, the Griffin International Poetry Prize and the Ondaatje Prize. He has also written novels, libretti and texts for oratorios and song cycles. He regularly writes and presents documentaries and dramas for broadcasting and is Professor of Poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University.