Rupert Thomson was born in Eastbourne, England in November 1955, and educated at Christ's Hospital School. At seventeen, he was awarded a scholarship to Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he studied Medieval History and Political Thought. Once described as "one of the strangest and most refreshingly un-English voices in contemporary fiction", and compared to writers as various as Charles Dickens, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Mervyn Peake and JG Ballard, he is the author of eight widely-acclaimed novels, the most recent of which, "Death of a Murderer", was shortlisted for the Costa Novel of the Year. His sixth novel, "The Book of Revelation", was made into a feature film by the Australian writer/director, Ana Kokkinos. With his memoir, 'This Party's Got to Stop", he has ventured into non-fiction for the first time. He has lived in many cities throughout the world, and currently resides in London.