Loreto Todd is Professor of English at the University of Ulster, Coleraine. Born in Northern Ireland, she attended Queen's University, Belfast where her classmates included poet Seamus Heaney and writer Seamus Deane. She worked in England for many years, and was director of the programme of World English Research at the University of Leeds, England. She has travelled extensively and lectured in Africa, America (North and South), Asia (India and Singapore), Australia (Brisbane and Sydney), the Caribbean and the Pacific (Hawaii, Solomans, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea). She has written 30 books, over 80 articles and chapters in books; over 100 reviews, short papers and has edited several journals. During her travels, she has amassed a collection of texts, as well as audio and audio-visual recordings, from around the world. These total in excess of 12 million words and include: Conversations; Descriptions of language choice and use; Oral and written literature. She is currently working on this archive material and translating the Pidgin and Creole texts.