Phil Maillard was born in 1948, and grew up in South London. He completed a carpentry apprenticeship with the old Greater London Council in the early 1970's; he still messes about with houses. He moved to South Wales in 1975. For the last 20 years he's worked as a Speech and Language Therapist for the NHS, specialising in progressive neurological conditions.

Education, jobs, places—is that who we are? Maybe . . .

"Allen Fisher in London, and John Freeman in Cardiff, published my first 2 books in the mid-1970s. Peter Hodgkiss did 3 more. Since 1980, apart from a couple of chapbooks and a paperback of short fiction, I've published in magazines and anthologies. Very little of the writing in this Shearsman selection, therefore, has appeared in book form before." (More on the book page—see link above)