Noted writer, columnist and poet Dom Moraes died of heart attack in Mumbai on Wednesday afternoon, family sources said. He was 65.

Moraes, who had also been suffering from cancer, died in sleep at his residence in suburban Bandra. He is survived by his only son S Moraes who resides in the United Kingdom.

The funeral would be held on Thursday evening at Sewree.

Moraes, who is the son of former Indian Express editor Frank Moraes, authored many books on poetry, fiction and travelogues. He was a regular contributor to the Afternoon newspaper.

Born in 1938 in Bombay, Moraes, penned his first poem at the age of 12 and at 19 published his first book of poems A Beginning, which won the Hawthornden Prize for the best work of the imagination in 1958. He remains the first non-English and also the youngest person to win this prize.

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As a child, he travelled extensively through Sri Lanka, Australia, New Zealand and the whole of South Asia.

In 1960, his second book of verse became the Autumn Choice of the Poetry Book Society.

In 1965 came his third book of verse John Nobody. In 1983, he published a privately printed book of poems Absences and in 1987 came Collected Poems.

One of his books is Mrs Gandhi, a biography of former prime minister Indira Gandhi.

He has edited magazines in London, Hong Kong and New York, been a war correspondent, served a United Nations body, and scripted and partially directed over 20 television documentaries for the BBC and ITV.