A constant in Chris’s life has been his obsession with/possession by language in its various forms. Testimony to this has been borne by his successive career roles as teacher of modern languages at a sixth-form college and English for speakers of other languages in the secondary sector, followed by a number of years as a professional freelance translator. Genres other than poetry in which he has written have included songs, short stories and novels. Chris's dream of living in the Whitby area - with which he had fallen in love on a family holiday in 1965 - was finally realised in 1992, when Chris, his wife and their son made their move to that promised land north of York, south of heaven...