Brian Holton taught Chinese in Edinburgh, Newcastle and Durham, and was first Director of the Chinese-English Translating and Interpreting programme at Newcastle. He then taught Chinese-English translation in the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He has published a dozen books of translations of the poetry of Yang Lian, as well as many classical and modern poems and short stories, as well as the novel Paper Cuts , by Leung Ping Kwan. He has translated for the Royal Shakespeare Company, and has performed at major literary festivals throughout the world. His work has won a Commendation in the Times Stephen Spender prize in 2012, and was Runner-up in the Modern Poetry in Translation Prize in 2011. He lives in Melrose with an improbably large number of musical instruments.