Glyn Hughes (writer)

Glyn Hughes (25 May 1935 – 24 May 2011) was an English poet, novelist and artist.

Early life and education
Glyn Hughes was born on 25 May 1935 in Altrincham. His father was a bus conductor, who had been unemployed in the 1920's. His mother "cleaned other people's houses." He grew up up in a council house estate, introduced to literature by his father, who was a voracious reader.

Hughes attended Altrincham Grammar School for Boys. He has stated that "literature at school was nothing... had nothing to do with my life... A mess of words. " At the age of 13, he discovered Richard Jefferies on his own on the shelves of the public library.

After grammar school he attended a local art college and later trained to be a teacher.

Career
Hughes worked as a teacher for 10 years before becoming a full-time writer in 1968. In 1970, he bought a derelict cottage in Millbank, Sowerby Bridge for 50GBP. In 1975, he published Millstone Grit, a journey through the West Riding of Yorkshire and East Lancashire. In it, he devotes an entire chapter describing how he interviewed William Holt.

His 1982 novel Where I Used to Play on the Green  won the Guardian Fiction Prize and David Higham Prize for Fiction.

Personal life and death
Hughes was married three times and had one son. He died from cancer on 24 May 2011, at the age of 75.

Legacy
Millstone Grit was included in "William Atkins's top 10 books of the moor" in 2014, and was republished by Little Toller Books in 2022 with an introduction by Ben Myers.

Selected publications

 * Towards the Sun: poems & photographs (1971, Harry Chambers, Phoenix Pamphlet Poets, Manchester)
 * Millstone Grit (1975, Readers Union: ISBN 978-0575017436)
 * Where I Used to Play on the Green (1982, Gollancz: ISBN 978-0575029972)
 * Life Class (2009, Shoestring: ISBN 9781904886983)
 * A Year in the Bull-box (2011, Arc: ISBN 9781906570798)