NICHOLAS SNOWDON* WILLEY BORN LONDON 21ST FEB. 1946 TO ELEANOR ( NÉE SNOWDON ) AND FREDERICK WILLEY. DIED 20TH NOVEMBER 2011

Eleanor was a teacher of English. Fred became MP for Sunderland North in the 1945 Labour government. Both parents came from County Durham. His education: UCS Junior school and then King Alfred’s in Hampstead. He wrote poetry from quite early childhood.

Nick began to have serious depressions at about sixteen and spent most of that year in hospital. The illness was never far away throughout his life. Over the years he had a number of jobs ranging from shipping clerk, various office jobs and Chivers jam factory worker.

When he met his future wife Sarah in 1973 he had been working happily for quite a long period in the Play Library at the BBC with Kay Hutchings, his boss. Nick lived with Sarah in a cottage in Wiltshire. There were two children of the marriage, Matt born in Bristol 1974 and Jane in Bath 1977. Nick took a Philosophy degree at Bristol in the seventies. In later years he worked with deaf and blind adults and also, for several years, with young adults with learning difficulties. He never stopped writing poetry.

* Nicholas Willey habitually spelled his middle name Snowden.