Chris - I like your notion of the biog as something to stay the attention of a potential reader. My personal favourite in the genre would have attracted my attention even if I hadn't already known of the author in question: Frank Kuppner was born in Glasgow in 1951 and has lived there ever since, "nursing the impossible dream of emigrating to Edinburgh." He is a qualified Electronics Engineer, although he has never practised. Carcanet published _A Bad Day for the Sung Dynasty_ and _The Intelligent Observation of Naked Women._ (And a few more since but I've only got _Ridiculous! Absurd! Disgusting!_) best, Malcolm (born in Aberdeen, emigrated to Cambridge) %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%