John Irons (b. 1942) studied modern languages at Cambridge, where he did his doctorate on poetic imagery in the writing of a Dutch poet. He moved permanently to Scandinavia in 1968, and has lived in Denmark and Sweden ever since. He has been a professional translator from various languages into English for the past 30 years, his speciality being the translation of poetry. He also translates for the Hans Christian Andersen Centre in Odense, Denmark.