Renowned writer Sir Derek Walcott has died

Renowned writer and poet, St Lucian Sir Derek Walcott has died.

Sir Derek, 87, died at home this morning after a prolonged illness, the St Lucia News Online reports.

Walcott, a titan of Caribbean literature was Professor of Poetry at the University of Essex from 2010 to 2013.

In 1992, he was awarded the 1992 Nobel Prize in Literature.

His works, which explored Caribbean culture, include the epic poem "Omeros" (1990), which many critics view as his major achievement.

The play "Dream on Monkey Mountain", is also one of his major works.

He wrote "The day, with all its pain ahead, is yours," in his work "The Prodigal".

Reviewing it for the New York Times, James Dickey, said: "Derek Walcott's virtues as a poet are extraordinary ... He could turn his attention on anything at all and make it live with a reality beyond its own; through his fearless language it becomes not only its acquired life, but the real one, the one that lasts.”

Walcott was educated at St. Mary’s College in St Lucia and at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica.