Daniel (otherwise known as Dannie) Abse was born into a distinguished Jewish family in Cardiff.
He had two older brothers; Leo, a politician who famously made homosexuality legal in Wales and England and Wilfred, who was a respected psychoanalyst.
Dannie studied medicine at the University of Wales, the Westminster Hospital, and King's College London.
While Dannie was still in medical school his first poetry book, "After Every Green Thing", was published in 1949. After working for many years in London, Dannie moved back to South Wales for his retirement, and took this opportunity to devote his time to his writing. He won the Welsh Arts Council Award in both 1971 and 1987, and the Cholmondeley Award in 1985. He has been a member of the Royal Society of Literature since 1983.
Dannie Abse lives in Golders Green, a very cosmopolitan district of London that has a thriving Jewish Community - as well as a summer house at Ogmore-by-the-Sea in his native Wales. In June 2005 when driving from London to Ogmore, he was involved in a car accident; his wife Joan, aged 78, died instantly; Abse suffered a broken rib.
