Gillian Allnutt was born in London in 1949, and now lives in North East England. She has published eight collections of poetry, most recently How the Bicycle Shone: New & Selected Poems (Bloodaxe, 2007) and indwelling (Bloodaxe, 2013). Nantucket and the Angel (1997) and Lintel (2001) were both shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize.