KATE ASHTON was born in Beith and qualified as an RGN from the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh before spending the mid to late 1970s as a features editor on Nursing Times. She then lived in The Netherlands for many years, publishing full-length fiction and non-fiction and working as a  freelance editor and translator. In 2003 she returned to Scotland and now lives in Nairn. Since coming home, her poems have appeared in magazines including Shearsman, THE SHOp and Northwords Now, and a pamphlet, The Concourse of Virgins, came out from Lapwing Publications in 2012.   

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