North Ayrshire man Gerry Cambridge has scooped one of the UK's most prestigious poetry awards.

The Irvine man has won the Cholmondeley (pronounced 'Chumly') Awards for Poetry honour poets for "sustained excellence across a body of work".

The awards are administered by the Society of Authors in London, which is often called the UK's trade union for writers. They were founded in 1966 by the late Dowager Marchioness of Chomondeley and have been awarded every year since.

Previous winners include the Nobel Prizewinners Seamus Heaney and Derek Walcott, the former Makar of Scotland, Edwin Morgan, and his contemporary Norman MacCaig. 

Gerry revealed: "You don't apply for it. In fact you don't even know you're being considered for it.

"I just received an email from the Society of Authors one afternoon recently, informing me. There's also a wee bit of money involved, which is nice."

Gerry, who was brought up in the Irvine area since his early teens, returned to the town during the pandemic after some years away.

He said: "I credit North Ayrshire with turning me into a poet. I very much doubt I'd have written poetry without exposure to the big natural environment and the human tensions and colour of the area."

Gerry has published six books of his own poetry, the latest of which is The Light Acknowledgers & Other Poems (Happen Stance Press, 2019).

He also has a memoir about his teenage years around Irvine, The Ayrshire Nestling, due out from Red Squirrel Press later this summer. He also edits a poetry magazine with an international reputation, The Dark Horse. 

He picked up his award at the annual Society of Authors' Awards night June 20 in Southwark Cathedral in London. 

Gerry added: "This encourages me to keep going, not that, after writing for 40 years, I needed that."

He's currently working on a book of new poems set in North Ayrshire.

Congratulations to Gerry on such a major achievement.