He was born in Scotland and grew up as an ex-pat, and that probably says a lot about why he feels comfortable living in the United Arab Emirates. His childhood was shared between freezing cold Scottish boarding schools and hot days and nights in the African bush. After university in London he began his career in television, travelling the world. Writing and reading had always been his passions since childhood but the time constraints of broadcasting left him with words unsaid and he took up fiction writing as an antidote.