Born Thomas McKenna, he was raised by his mother's maternal aunt, Catherine McKenna Pickard (1898-1990) Tom Pickard grew up in the working-class suburbs of Cowgate, Newcastle upon Tyne, and Blakelaw and left school at the age of 14. Three years later he met Basil Bunting and was instrumental in the older poet's return to writing in the early 1960s,Paul Batchelor, "Return of the native", The Guardian, 4 July 2009. leading to the latter's most acclaimed poem, the long, autobiographical Briggflatts, published in 1966. The association also produced Bunting's scathing "What the Chairman told Tom" ("I want to wash when I meet a poet.... my twelve-year-old can do it - AND rhyme!")
