James King Annand was born and brought up in Edinburgh and in 1930, became a graduate of her University. He became a teacher in Edinburgh and Whithorn, providing him with experience and ideas for his bairn rhymes, which continue to delight Scots children.
He was also the author of poetry for adults and an active promoter of the Scots language becoming the inaugural editor of the Scots poetry magazine Lallans, which he edited from 1973-83.
His children’s poems were collected in A Wale o Rhymes (Macdonald Publishers, 1989), and his Selected Poems 1925-1990 was published by Mercat Press in 1992.