Born into a working class family in 1940 in NZ, I was an only child. As a fat kid, I spent much of my time alone and became an almost predatory reader. Ultimately, in my dotage, and after almost 30 years drifting about in Australia and PNG, I returned to NZ and began to write.

My major influence has been personal experience, but characters like Lewis Carroll, Spike Milligan, Banjo Patterson and Omar Khayyam must share some of the blame. Charles Bukowski is now keeping me in touch with unreality.