GAVIN BANTOCK was born in Barnt Green, Worcestershire, England, on 4th July, 1939.

He was educated at King’s Norton Grammar School for Boys and at New College, Oxford,

where he majored in English Language and Literature.

After graduating in 1964, GB taught in secondary schools in UK until 1969, when he moved to Japan, teaching English at Reitaku University, near Tokyo. Retiring 25 years later in 1994, he lived till 2015 in west Japan, with his wife Kyoko (whom he married in 1976). He was Director of Drama for the Meitoku International Players from 1993 to 2015.

GB THE POET

From an early age, GB began writing poetry, learning and experimenting with many of the traditional poetic forms such as sonnets, villanelles, cinquains and odes, and mastering many techniques including the use of rhyme, blank verse, alliteration, and many types of metaphor, etc. In his early twenties, he completed his first major work, an epic poem of 7,000 lines on the subject of Christ, written mainly in free verse, but using many traditional styles. It was published in 1966, & won two prizes—the Richard Hillary Award (1964) and the Alice-Hunt-Bartlett  Prize (1966). In 1969, before moving to Japan, GB also won an Eric Gregory Award. Further prizes followed: Arvon Foundation International Poetry Competition (1998), Cardiff International Poetry Competition (1999), and several other minor awards. He was short-listed in the Strokestown International Poetry Competition in 2010.