John Hegley was born in 1953 in Newington Green, and moved to Luton at an early age. After leaving school he worked as a bus conductor and social security clerk, until he went to Bradford University, eking out his grant by working as a nurse in a local mental hospital.

He has worked with two children’s theatre groups, ‘Interaction’ and ‘Soapbox’, and began his highly successful career at the notoriously tough comedy store in 1980. ‘His audience is huge,’ writes Peter Forbes, ‘because everyone who has ever heard him is captivated by his mastery of timing and gesture and his complete domination of any audience that comes his way.’

Find out more about John Hegley through the Scottish Poetry Library’s Poets A-Z.