W.R. Rodgers was born in Belfast in 1909. He bacame a Presbyterian Minister in 1935 and served in Loughgall, Co. Armagh, until 1946 when he moved to London to work for the BBC.

He published two collections of poems, Awake! and Other Poems (1941) and Europa and the Bull and Other Poems (1952). His most celebrated radio feature is The Return Room, a colourful account of his Belfast childhood.

He died in California in 1969. Collected Poems appeared in 1971.