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Harry Ricketts was born in 1950 in London. He earned his BA at Oxford University. He then taught at the University of Hong Kong (1974-1977) and the University of Leicester (1978-1981) before moving to New Zealand. Ricketts began writing poetry at school. At Oxford he was arts editor of the student newspaper Cherwell and wrote for the OSAC magazine, interviewing writers like John Wain. His first book was a collection of realist contemporary short fiction and poems, People like Us, published in Hong Kong in 1977. During the 1980s, he started to publish academic work, such as an edition of Rudyard Kipling¿s `lost¿ New Zealand story "One Lady at Wairakei" (1983) and a valuable book of interviews with New Zealand poets, Talking about Ourselves (1986). This book introduced Ricketts to the New Zealand poetry scene.

Ricketts's first collection of poetry, Coming under Scrutiny, was published in 1989. In 1996, he published a collection of limericks, A Brief History of New Zealand Literature, and a section of poems in the four-poet volume How Things Are. He has since published further poetry collections: Plunge (2001), Your Secret Life (2005) and Just Then (2012). In 2015 his title, Half Dark, made the New Zealand High Profile Titles List.

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