William Martin (1925-2010) was born in New Silksworth, Co. Durham. During the Second World War, he was a radio technician in the RAF, based near Karachi, where he was inspired by the Eastern religious and philosophical traditions. After being demobbed he became a gas fitter and later served in the Audiology Department of Sunderland Royal Infirmary, retiring as Head of Department. He lived in Sunderland since the 1950s.

He was an active member of CND for many years, taking part in the ritual boarding of nuclear submarines in Holy Loch, Scotland in 1961. He became an artist and had work purchased and exhibited by Sunderland Art Gallery. However, oil paints and a young family were not an easy combination, and poetry became his medium from the mid 1960s onwards.

For some years he wrote without any recognition, but in 1971 he had a book of poetry published to commemorate the Wearmouth 1300 Festival (Tidings of our Bairnsea). This was later followed by Cracknrigg (1983) and Hinny Beata (1987) with Taxus, and Marra Familia (1993) and Lammas Alanna (2000) with Bloodaxe.

Don Marquis was considered by many to be the successor to Mark Twain as America's foremost wit. He was a daily newspaper columnist for the New York Sun and, later, the Herald Tribune. He invented a great many characters to express his and their opinions on the issues of the day, partly in order to fulfillthe constant need for material to fill his column. Two of his most memorable and much-loved characters are Archy the Cockroach and Mehitabel the Alley Cat (the pair who, together, make up the Bloodaxe titles Archyology i and ii), who now, over half a century after Marquis' death, are still able to endure.