The son of James and Margaret McMillan, and the youngest member of a family of three, William Allan McMillan was born in 1959 in the Ayrshire mining town of Cumnock. He was educated at Cumnock Academy before going on to study Fine Art-Drawing and Painting at Glasgow School of Art (1977-1981). Gaining a post graduate degree in 1982, he mainly worked as a teacher of art in Ayrshire secondary schools and was also the tutor of a Community Art Group for 20 years. Allan has exhibited his paintings with various groups over the years in Edinburgh; Glasgow; Inveraray; Kilmarnock; Troon; Ayr; Cumnock; Auchinleck and Girvan. Allan is an artist, poet and musician who now lives in the old weaving village of Crosshill in Carrick, South Ayrshire with his wife Mhairi.

Allan is an award-winning poet, who won the Robin Whyte Memorial Prize for creative writing in 2019. His poetry is mainly inspired by his walking and sketching activities; familiar landscapes; the natural world; the changing seasons and the variety of moods reflected by our human condition.

Allan has previously published two books of poetry: ‘Stars and Fireflies (2018) and ‘A Sunfall of Rainshine’ (2020). For the first time ‘Drawings and Poems’ (2023) brings together a group of over 50 studies in pen and ink with a selection of his recent poetry.