John McGreal was born in 1945. He lives in South London. He is divorced with a daughter, Frances. His writing has emerged out of his practice as a visual artist, which has always included an interest in use of text. This focus on spacial aspects of language was exemplified in his first solo art show, How Is It?, an exhibition of prints in July, 2006 at The Irish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith, London to commemorate the centenary of Samuel Becket. As an artist he has worked as a Visiting Tutor at Camberwell College of Art since gaining a Distinction in MA Book Arts there (2002)and a First in BA Fine Art at Central St Martin's School of Art (2001). His interest in writing the silent voice and internal monologue also emerged from the experience prior to that in the Eighties and Nineties, when he practiced as a psychiatric and addiction counsellor - and then as a psychoanalytic counsellor, getting a Distinction in the Postgraduate Diploma in Psychoanalytic Counselling at Goldsmith's College, London (1992). His attention to detail in punctuation and the inner spacial workings of written language has stemmed too from the time in the Seventies when he worked as a free-lance translator for Routledge and Kegan Paul and The Harvester Press. He has always retained an interest in the social context of writing since working in the early Seventies and late Sixties as an academic sociologist at The Open University, The London School of Economics and Leicester University where he got a First in BA Soc.Sci.(Sociology)in 1967.
