Didier Beaugrand lives in Cambridge, the UK, with his wife Polly. He grew up in the French Alps and always enjoyed the great outdoors. His first literary love was R L Stevenson's Treasure Island. Jack London came soon after, and as a teenager, he moved on to Jack Kerouac and Jim Harrison. His first real encounter with poetry was with A Rimbaud and P Verlaine. By then already a young man, he dutifully followed their lead and applied himself to misuse his youth as best he could; he too wanted to be a poet and seer and started writing around this time. After two years of National Service in Guadeloupe, West Indies, he carried on travelling, mostly hitchhiking and slipping rough. Although he never quite lived on the streets, he visited often and long enough to learn that he didn’t want to make it a permanent residence. He met his wife in early 2001, and they settled in a small village outside of Cambridge. He owns and manages www.blackfeatherpoetry.blog and approaches poetry writing and reading as a form of personal spiritual practice. View all posts by Didier Beaugrand