Matthew Baylis was born in Nottingham in 1971 and educated in Liverpool and Cambridge. After working as a literary agent, he went on to write storylines for BBC 1's 'EastEnders', and then to help the United Nations and British Council create the first pan-East African soap opera (scheduled for transmission in July 2002). He has written for a number of newspapers, including the Guardian, Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, Sunday Times, Daily Mail, Independent on Sunday and Evening Standard. He also reviews fiction for the website Amazon.co.uk. His first novel, Stranger Than Fulham, was published in 1999.