Tom Tivnan was born in Massachusetts and educated at the University of Massachusetts and University of Strathclyde. Leaving the United States as the second Bush administration took power, he worked variously as a bookseller and journalist in Rome, Budapest, Hamburg, Edinburgh and Glasgow before settling in London in 2007. For the last decade he has been the features editor for the publishing industry bible The Bookseller and is regularly seen and heard speaking on book trade matters to the wider media. He wrote the text for the photography book Tattooed by the Family Business (Pavilion) and contributes annually to The Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook (A&C Black). He lives in Walthamstow, East London, with his partner and an elderly cat called Soze. His first novel, The Esquimaux, is published by Silvertail.