Travers Rafe Lee Harwood was born in 1939 in Leicester, grew up Chertsey (Surrey), moved to London. Lee died at 12.10pm on Sunday July 26th. He had spent the majority of the past 45 years living in Brighton. In a writing career that began in the early 1960s he had published over 20 volumes of poetry and prose, as well as translations of Tristan Tzara. His work has been widely anthologised and he is regarded as one of the finest poets working in England today.

During the mid to late 1970s, Harwood was actively involved in politics, as a union official and as a member of the Labour Party during its most radical years, now often derided, and he stood as a candidate in local elections (unsuccessfully).

He worked as bus conductor and post office worker.

In 1961 he married his first wife, Jenny Goodgame, by whom he had a son, Blake, in 1962. He met the photographer Judith Walker while a writer in residence at the Aegean School of Fine Arts in Paros, Greece, and they married in 1974. Photographs by her are used in his collections Boston-Brighton and All the wrong notes. Harwood and Judith Walker had a son, Rafe (1977) and a daughter, Rowan (1979).

His last work was published last year The Orchid Boat by Enitharmon Press.