 He studied painting at the Chelsea School of Art, and has lived in London, Brighton and Cumbria.His first collection of poetry, "The Boy from the Chemist is Here to See You" (1998) won a Forward Poetry Prize (Best First Collection) in 1998, and was shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize.The book also gained him the Somerset Maugham Award,and in 1999 he won the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award.