Richard Ramsbotham was born in Northumberland in 1962. He studied Modern Languages and English at Cambridge University. Between 1989 and 1993 he lectured in English Literature at Warsaw University in Poland. After training in Speech and Drama he continued lecturing but also worked as an actor and wrote and directed plays. He later formed his own theatre and educational company. He is the author of Who Wrote Bacon? William Shakespeare, Francis Bacon and James 1. A Mystery for the 21st Century (Temple Lodge, 2004) and has written numerous plays: 13 Mirrors; Through a Glass Darkly; I am Andrey Belji; Rewinding the War. He is completing a translation of Rudolf Steiner's 4 Mystery Dramas. He has also written many articles on literary, cultural and political themes. In 1986 he discovered the recently published Collected Poems of Vernon Watkins and was (and remains) astonished that he had never heard Vernon Watkins mentioned at Cambridge nor encountered him in literary criticism. After meeting Gwen Watkins, the poet's widow, she asked him to write Watkins's authorized biography. In 2006, the 100th anniversary of the poet's birth, he edited New Selected Poems of Vernon Watkins (Carcanet, 2006). An Exact Mystery - the Poetic Life of Vernon Watkins (Part One) was originally written in time for October 8th, 2017 - the 50th anniversary of Watkins's death.