King Charles honours refugee who 'turned the spotlight' in his latest major announcement

The prestigious award, established by King George V in 1933 at the suggestion of the poet Laureate John Masefield, recognises excellence in poetry based on a body of work over several years or an outstanding poetry collection.

It is given annually to a recipient from the UK or a Commonwealth Realm.

Szirtes has become a major literary figure in the UK, having published 13 full-length poetry collections that address contemporary themes and respond to current affairs across the world.

Upon receiving the award, Szirtes expressed disbelief, saying: "I could not believe it when Simon Armitage shared the news. When our family came here as refugees in 1956, only my father spoke some English.

"Although English was chronologically my second language, it quickly became first in daily life. I had no expectations, no background or formal teaching, so being the recipient of the King's Gold Medal for Poetry tops everything."

His memoir "The Photographer at Sixteen" (2019) chronicles his mother's life and won the prestigious James Tait Black Prize for biography.

The Poetry Medal Committee selected Szirtes for his deeply personal work, which offers a unique perspective looking at both East and West.

Among his recent works, his sequence "In the Streets of a Small Town" from the collection "Fresh Out of the Sky" captures the experience of the pandemic.

Szirtes's first book of poems, "The Slant Door" (1979), was joint winner of the Faber Prize.

His collection "Reel" won the T S Eliot Prize in 2004, and he has been shortlisted twice more for this award.

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Together with his wife Clarissa Upchurch, he founded The Starwheel Press, publishing portfolios and pamphlets of etchings and poems.

He taught art and art history in schools before moving to higher education in 1992 and retired from the University of East Anglia in 2013.

Poet Laureate Simon Armitage praised Szirtes's work.

He said: "For decades his crafted, observational poems have turned the spotlight on society and its values - how countries and regimes treat their people, how people operate under fluctuating political ideologies."