I was born and grew up in Belfast near the Harland and Wolf shipyard where my grandfather and great-grandfather helped built the Titanic between 19019 1nd 1912. I studied Russian at Queen's University Belfast and took further degrees at the University of London and the University of Wales. I was head of library services for a North London Borough where I gave talks on both Russian and Irish poetry and was an active trade unionist. Back in Northern Ireland I was head of library services for the Northern Ireland Executive and established the parliamentary library in Stormont when devolution returned in 1999. I taught courses in librarianship for the University of Ulster. I now live in Scotland.
