He was born in 1943 and studied at Trinity College Dublin, the Courtauld Insitute of Art and the London Film School. Much of his early work was poetry inspired by the Beat poets and published by his own small printing press. Closely connected with the British avant-garde poetry scene of the 1960s and 70s, he is perhaps best known for his 1991 novel Downriver, a scathing critique of Thatcherism (“searingly vivid”-The Observer) which was the recipient of both the James Tait Memorial Prize and the 1992 Encore Prize.
Other writings include Lud Heat, Rodinsky’s Room and Radon Daughters. In 1997 he collaborated with others to make The Falconer, a documentary film. This was followed in 2002 by London Orbital, a non-fiction film accompanied by a book of the same name based on a series of trips by foot following the route of the M25.