John Halliday was born in Durham and has always lived in the North East. He has a lifelong interest in poetry and following a Creative Writing PhD has facilitated memoir and life writing groups for older writers. For many years he worked as a psychotherapist and noticed the impact poetry had on those engaging with their distress. He believes poetry can help us face life’s vicissitudes of which ageing is one of the most prominent. Over the last four years he has run the Basil Bunting Poetry Competition and through that hopes to encourage young writers to write poetry. His anthology, Don't Bring Me No Rocking Chair: poems on ageing, was published by Bloodaxe Books with Newcastle University in 2013.
