David Grant was born in 1925 and educated at Portsmouth Grammar School and University College London. During the Second World War, he served with the RAF as a Japanese linguist in the SW Pacific. In 1950 he began his career as a schoolmaster which lasted until his retirement in 1990. His first publication was Waes, a historical novel (Allen & Unwin 1967). In 1960 his stage play, Seaman Leading, was produced at the Oxford Playhouse, and in 1966 The Gamecock toured Britain with Prospect Productions. In 1968, he published his play for schools, King Cat (Longmans). He has received two Arts Council Drama Bursaries and a Literature award for his novel Esplanade. David Grant now runs a small publishing firm, Escargot Press, which in 1991 published his poem, Letter to John Keats, followed in 1992 by Letter to WH. Auden.