Writer Peter Porter, seen at his office in London in 1973, had his first poetry collection published in 1961. (Keystone/Getty Images)

Acclaimed poet Peter Porter, who captured several major literary prizes including the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry, has died at age 81 in London.

Porter, who had been struggling with liver cancer, passed away on Friday.

"[Peter Porter] was a tremendously generous presence in British poetry, not only because of his integrity, but also because of the range of his own work," Poetry Review editor Fiona Sampson told The Guardian newspaper.

Born in Brisbane, Australia, in 1929, Porter moved to Britain in 1951 and worked as a bookseller while developing his writing.

His first collection, Once Bitten, Twice Bitten, was published in 1961. Seven years later, Porter switched to full-time writing, becoming a journalist, reviewer and poet.

He won wide acclaim in 1978 for The Cost of Seriousness, an anthology of poetry penned in the wake of his wife's suicide.

In 2002, he captured the Forward Prize, considered the biggest poetry accolade in the U.K., for Max Is Missing and in the same year was bestowed the Queen's Medal. Last year's Better Than God made the shortlist for the 2009 Forward Prize.

Other prizes include the Whitbread poetry prize for 1988's Automatic Oracle and the Medal of the Order of Australia, an honour he received in 2004.

Porter remained busy even as he got older. He wrote for many newspapers and journals and appeared on television and radio arts programs.

Often self-deprecating and known as a satirist, he once remarked about his work: "Sometimes I'll say, like Jonathan Swift, 'What genius had I when I wrote this?' Other times I'll feel terribly embarrassed and sorry I ever wrote such rubbish."

A selection of his poetry is due to be published in May.