Born in Scarborough in 1934, Peter Bland emigrated to New Zealand at the age of 20 and read English at the Victoria University of Wellington. He worked as a talks producer for the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation. He published his first book of poems in 1964 and became closely associated with the Wellington Group which included James K. Baxter and Louis Johnson. He worked as an editor and in theatre, returning to Britain in 1970 where his books were published by London Magazine Editions.