Glyn Hughes (25 May 1935 – 24 May 2011) was an English poet, novelist and artist.
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."[1] 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.[2]
Hughes worked as a teacher for 10 years before becoming a full-time writer in 1968.[2] In 1970, he bought a derelict cottage in Millbank, Sowerby Bridge for 50GBP.[1] 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.[1]
His 1982 novel Where I Used to Play on the Green won the Guardian Fiction Prize[3] and David Higham Prize for Fiction.[4]
Hughes was married three times and had one son. He died from cancer on 24 May 2011, at the age of 75.[5]
Millstone Grit was included in "William Atkins's top 10 books of the moor" in 2014,[6] and was republished by Little Toller Books in 2022 with an introduction by Ben Myers.[7]