Bill Kirton was born in Plymouth, England, studied French at Exeter University and graduated in 1962. After a brief spell as a trainee manager in industry, which didn't suit him at all, he became a teacher at Hardye's School in Dorchester, Dorset. After 3 years there, a coincidence led to him starting a Ph.D. on the theatre of Victor Hugo. A phone call from a colleague led to him being appointed temporary lecturer in French at the University of Aberdeen. It was intended to be a 6 month contract but, in the end, he was awarded his doctorate and spent the rest of his working career there, eventually taking early retirement to concentrate on writing. He has extensive experience of acting and directing. His directing credits include many French language plays as well as works by Shakespeare, Orton, Beckett and Ionesco. He spent a sabbatical year and two other short spells at the University of Rhode Island Theater Department, which had commissioned translations of 3 Moli�re plays, one of which he directed. While there, he gave classes in script-writing and critical approaches to drama and directed the department's production of As You Like It. Back in Scotland, he wrote and performed in revues at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, wrote stage plays, some commissioned by Aberdeen Children's Theatre. In addition, he wrote radio plays for the BBC, two of which were also broadcast in Australia. He has presented TV programmes, including the very successful Electric Theatre Show and recorded voice-overs for TV commercials and documentaries. His scripts for companies on training, safety, and promotional presentations are too numerous to mention. He's been a Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellow at universities in Aberdeen, Dundee and St Andrews and is the organiser of a nation-wide scheme which places professional writers in schools to help students with the transition to writing at university. He still gives workshops in schools from Orkney to Dundee as part of the scheme. His website and blog are at www.billkirton.com
