His first poetry collection, August Autumn, was published in 1984 by Secker and Warburg. His four subsequent collections, Public and Confidential (1989), Taking Liberties (1993), Voice Mail (2002) and Vision Mixer (2006), were all published by Enitharmon Press. In 1974, Forbes received an Eric Gregory Award; in 1998, he won 1st Prize in the TLS / Blackwells Poetry Competition. He retired from head of English at Wycombe Abbey School in the summer of 2009.