Edward Glover was born in London in 1943. After gaining a history degree followed by an MPhil at Birkbeck College, London University, he embarked on a career in the British diplomatic service, during which his overseas postings included Washington DC, Berlin, Brussels and the Caribbean. He subsequently advised on foreign ministry reform in post- invasion Iraq, Kosovo and Sierra Leone. For seven years he headed a one-million-acre rainforest-conservation project in South America, on behalf of the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Guyana Government.

With an interest in 16th- and 18th-century history, baroque music and 18th-century art, Edward was encouraged by the purchase of two paintings and a passport to try his hand at writing historical fiction.

Edward and his wife, former Foreign & Commonwealth Office lawyer and leading international human rights adviser Dame Audrey Glover, now live in Norfolk, a place that gives him further inspiration for his writing. Edward sits on the board of trustees of the Welsh environmental charity Size of Wales and is vice-chairman of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office Association, an associate fellow of the University of Warwick's Yesu Persaud Centre for Caribbean Studies and a board member of The King's Lynn Preservation Trust.

When he isn't writing, Edward is an avid tennis player and - at the age of 71 - completed the 2014 London Marathon, raising £7,000 for Ambitious about Autism.