 He was educated by Lasalle Brothers at Saint Illtyd's College.He left the college in 1957 to read Philosophy and English Literature at the University of Bristol and later undertook postgraduate studies in American Literature at the University of Keele.He was a founder of the poetry journal "The Resuscitator" in Bristol in 1963 and became Arts Council Creative Writing Fellow, at the University of Sussex, 1978–79.