Paul Hyland is a travel writer and poet. His first book, PURBECK: THE INGRAINED ISLAND (Gollancz/Dovecote Press), has been in print for over twenty years. All his biographies of places - Isle of Wight, the Congo, the Godavari (Andhra Pradesh) and the Tagus - were books of the year in UK or US broadsheets. BACKWARDS OUT OF THE BIG WORLD: A VOYAGE INTO PORTUGAL (HarperCollins/Flamingo, 1997), was a book of the year in the Guardian and the Sunday Times. RALEGH'S LAST JOURNEY (HarperCollins, 2003), is an intriguing excursion into pure history.

His powerful, elusive volume, POEMS OF Z (broadcast by Maurice Denham and featured on Pick of the Week), was followed by THE STUBBORN FOREST (Alice Hunt Bartlett Award) and KICKING SAWDUST - `unstrained, carefully judged and razory' (Lines Review) - all from Bloodaxe Books, for whom he wrote GETTING INTO POETRY, `essential reading...the guide to the contemporary poetry scene' (Suzi Feay).

His plays, drama-documentaries and features are broadcast by the BBC. He has won awards, worked on many residencies, gained public commissions and collaborated with photographers, musicians, composers, letter cutters and visual artists (traditional and digital) on music theatre, installations, stained glass, inscriptions and web sites.