Stephen Owen was born and spent his childhood in the West Riding; his family had worked in coal mining for many generations. He studied town planning at Newcastle University and, after a brief spell in local government, worked in higher education. He became dean of faculty at the University of Gloucestershire, acted as an external examiner at eight British universities and is a professor at the University of Pécs, Hungary. Stephen has published extensively, mainly academic books and papers; this is his first published fiction. He is married and has three children and four grandchildren.