Brian Whittingham was born and still lives in Charing Cross, Glasgow. After leaving school aged 15, he went to work on the Clyde shipyards, progressing to oilrigs and the QE2. Later he became a lecturer of Creative Writing at the Nautical College of Glasgow. His poetry collections include The Old Man From Brooklyn and the Charing Cross Carpet (Mariscat Press, 2000) and Drink the Green Fairy (Luath Press, 2004).