Born in Southampton, Giles emigrated to Australia in infancy, and lived there for twenty-five years. His later experiences - in County Durham, Buckinghamshire, the Isles of Scilly and Oxfordshire - steeped his writing in British landscapes, history, archaeology, flora and fauna. In addition to poetry and fiction, he has written essays on the folklore of natural history and mediaeval visual culture. He is an avid walker, photographer and amateur naturalist. Much of his work is infused with a love of nature, a fascination for history, and a quiet sense of the spirit of place. He now lives in Albany, Western Australia, and enjoys collaborations with musicians (Kathryn Wheeler, Simone Keane) and artists (Buffarches, John Lincoln and Martin Williamson). An avid fascination for the interplay between text and image is a trademark of his work. His most recent projects have been the libretto and novel for MIMMA: a Musical of War and Friendship in collaboration with composer Ron Siemiginowski, and a book of lockdown poems, A Glister of Leaves. "He has a wonderful sensibility for the layered British landscape and for a kind of bright darkness."

• Vahni Capildeo "Giles Watson's subjects and his poems are very much alike—wonders too little known... He writes not only of what he sees, feels, and has tasted... but of the soil that clings to these things—soil composed of tales about them, dense, ancient and complex as peat; history that surrounds them, be they small as a spore or large and unmapped as the insides of a certain tree; reputation fearsome, musty, and beloved. Always, and unusually for one who writes, he stands away from the centre of attention..."
• Anna Tambour