Scottish poet Douglas Dunn has been named as the winner of the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry 2013.
Mr Dunn, a protege of the poet Philip Larkin, was recognised for his body of work spanning more than four decades.
Poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy, who chaired the medal's judging committee said: "Douglas Dunn's sparkling, erudite and distinguished body of work has long been one of the grace notes of British poetry.
"He can be both jocular and wise, sensory or bookish, as well as powerfully moving: his Elegies are among the most touching and honouring pieces of recent decades, giving us poems that will live for generations. He stands deservedly among the greatest poets that Scotland has produced."
The committee met earlier this month and were unanimous in recommending the Scottish poet as this year's recipient of the award, on the basis of a lifetime's contribution to literature, and his distinguished output as a poet.
Mr Dunn's debut collection of verse Terry Street, published in 1969, was acclaimed as groundbreaking and chronicled the life of a working-class area of Hull.
The poet had studied at the city's university and also worked at the institution's library below Philip Larkin who was an major influence on his career.
He has produced more then ten collections of poetry with Elegies (1985), a personal account of his first wife's death, popular with both the public and critics.
The Gold Medal for Poetry was instituted by George V in 1933 at the suggestion of the then poet laureate, John Masefield.
The honour is awarded for excellence in poetry for either a body of work or an outstanding poetry collection published during the year of the award.
The Queen will present the medal to Mr Dunn next year.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article