John Whale was born in Liverpool in 1956 and was educated at Northway County Primary and St Margaret's High School. He studied at the University of Leeds from 1974-1979 before moving to a post at University College Cardiff. He returned to Leeds and to the University in 1984 where he is now Professor of Romantic Literature in the School of English and from where he co-edits the international literary quarterly Stand.
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Reviews
I have admired John Whale's poetry for decades now and am very glad that the publication of Waterloo Teeth means other poetry lovers will be able to share the pleasure it has given me for so long. --Ian Duhig, poet Whale makes childhood strange and mythical. He is obsessed with the oddness of words and combines hyperbole and erudition in poems which plunder science and history to form their sparkling entertainments. --Carol Ann Duffy, poet, Answering Back Whether in the guillotine world of revolutionary France or deep in the sensation of sucking a sugar cube, these poems are full of interest and surprise. The texture of every poem is stirringly sensuous. --Jeffrey Wainwright, poet, Clarity of Death