John Campbell was born in 1936 in Belfast's York Street area. He worked at Belfast's docks until 1985. Now retired,he is still active in Trade Union activity for the Transport & General Workers' Union. He has published four collections of poetry: Saturday Night in York Street (1982), An OulJobbin'Poet (1989) and Memories of York Street (1991) and TheRose and the Blade: New & Selected Poems 1957-1997(1997). Corner Kingdom was published in 1999. A miscellany of his various writing, Once There Was a Community Here, appeared in 2001.