Overview
- His agent confirmed he died peacefully at Torbay hospital at 10:55pm on 29 September with his wife, Linda Cookson, by his side.
- Publisher HarperCollins noted his peaceful passing and longtime editor Jane Johnson praised him as a vivid, exacting writer whose words endure.
- Roger McGough, his fellow Liverpool poet, posted a public tribute on X calling Patten his soulmate and wishing he “Rest In Poetry.”
- Patten co-authored the 1967 anthology The Mersey Sound with McGough and Adrian Henri, a million‑selling collection now published as a Penguin Classic.
- Born in Bootle in 1946, he left school at 15 to become a cub reporter, later publishing works such as Little Johnny’s Confession and Armada, writing for children, and earning honours including the Freedom of the City of Liverpool and a Royal Society of Literature fellowship.