Tony Mitton was born in 1951 in North Africa, the son of a soldier. As a child he lived in Africa, Germany and Hong Kong. At the age of 9 he went to state boarding school in Suffolk and went on receive a degree in English Literature from Cambridge University. Upon graduating, he trained to become a primary school teacher. He worked as a primary school teacher between the ages of 25 to 49, working part-time and writing part-time for for the last 13 years of that period. He now writes full-time. He lives in Cambridge with his wife and two children.