IAIN SHARP was born in Glasgow in 1953, but early in 1961 his family moved to Auckland, where he has lived ever since, apart from brief stints in Wellington and England. He has published three collections of verse: Why Mammals Shiver (1980), She is Trying to Kidnap the Blind Person and The Pierrot Variations (both 1985) Since 1995, he has edited the books pages of the Sunday Star-Times. He also works part-time in the Special Collections Department of Auckland Central City Library. He wrote the chapter on New Zealand in The Oxford Guide to Contemporary World Literature (1996), edited by John Sturrock.