CALDER, JOHN (b. 1927)

Born into a conservative Scottish landed family (his mother's side were wealthy Canadian industrialists), John Calder grew up in Britain and Canada. He attended university in Canada and Switzerland and was destined to join the family business, a timber company. However, Calder had other ideas. In 1949, he set up his first publishing company and by the late 1950s was making a name for publishing avant-garde European and American writers, including Beckett, Ionesco, Burroughs and Miller. During the 1960s, he continued to publish, led organisation of the International Writers' and Drama Conferences of 1962 and 1963 respectively, became involved in the Traverse Theatre Club and also ran his own arts festival, Ledlanet Nights, in Kinross-shire from 1963 to 1974. Calder still writes and in 2002 co-founded the Godot Company. He lives in Edinburgh and Paris.

COLVIN, SHEILA (b. 1935)

Born in Lancashire, Sheila Colvin moved to Edinburgh when she was ten years old. After leaving school, Colvin worked in the arts, beginning at the BBC then moving to New York to work both in theatre and for a television channel. She returned to Edinburgh for the summer of 1962 for a short holiday. Here she met Richard Demarco (q.v.), who introduced her to his friends, and ‘just got caught up in Edinburgh’.