Fred Beake was born in 1948 in Cheshire. He grew up in remote countryside there and in the West Riding. He read Afro-Asian studies at Sussex University, and has translated widely from modern French and classical Latin, and more recently classical Greek. He edits Mammon Press, and was co-editor of The Poet's Voice magazine which he founded in 1982. He reviews for Acumen , Stand and other magazines. Since 2003 he has been living in Torquay, Devon.

His previous publications include The Fisher Queen (Northern House/Stand), The Imaginations of Mr Shelley (essays, University of Salzburg), Places and Elegies (University of Salzburg) and The Cyclops: Poems, Translations and Essay (Menard Press).