Biography
I was born in 1949 in west London. My childhood was a
fifties, suburban one, so for most of us boys it involved a
lot of respectability and repression, and grey flannel
shorts until you were fourteen. If you were a girl you
spent a lot of time helping Mummy in the kitchen (like Jane
in the Ladybird, Peter and Jane books). My childhood and
teenage years were difficult, and full of drama, which
although challenging, has been a great source of material
in my later life as a writer. For those who are interested,
I touch on my personal history in the story Exile in
Four Fathers.
Pictures of me from my schooldays show a lanky, swotty
looking boy with spectacles and a full head of hair. This
is in direct contrast to the James Nash of forty years
later, rather larger (‘filled-out’ as my mother would have
it) less swotty and perhaps more engaged, still with
spectacles, but now with a lovely shiny bald head. I came
to Leeds in 1971 to do an MA at the University. And like
many before and many after me, decided to stay, living at
one address, or another, in Leeds 6, ever since.
Much of the seventies, eighties and nineties were
taken up with teaching which I turned out to be not bad at,
particularly with ‘difficult’ or ‘naughty’ kids. In loco
parentis, another story from
Four Fathers will tell you a
little more about my early years as a teacher.
And then the middle nineties, whacked out by my life and
all its changes, I eventually decided to leave teaching
because I wanted to try to make it as a writer. I had been
lucky enough to meet award-winning writer Char March
(wonderful poetry, short, stories and radio plays) and she,
with great selflessness, gave me a fantastic apprenticeship
in writing and performance. The fruits of that friendship
can be found in
Deadly Sensitive.
I spent the next eight years in writing. I worked for
the Metro newspaper, the Leeds Guide, and Northern
Exposure, and became Writer in Residence for organisations
as diverse as the National Library for the Blind and HM
Prison Wakefield. This work extended into schools, so I’m
the Writer in Residence for Calderdale High Schools, and
for the University of Leeds, Faculty of Education. I also
developed a secondary career hosting literary events around
the country, talking to and interviewing writers about
their work. I can be often be seen on the platform of the
Ilkley Literature Festival chairing
events with folk as diverse as Sarah Waters, Billy
Bragg or Andrew Motion.
Some impressions of my present life can be gained from
reading
Coma Songs. But most of the
poems have no autobiographical basis to them, apart
from showing what I was interested in at the time of
writing each poem.
