John Richardson has been painting since childhood and since youth has been a student of literature. From teen years reading the Canterbury Tales, he worked back through time, studying Greek and Latin literature in University and obtaining a graduate degree in Anglo-Saxon poetry. Richardson's first scholarly article was published before he had finished his undergraduate degree and there have been a number of publications since, touching on authors as disparate as Homer, Shakespeare and the Brother's Grimm. He has also published poetry and a verse translation of the Old English poem 'The Ruin'.