Jasper Kent was born in Worcestershire, England in 1968. He attended King Edward's School, Birmingham and went on to study Natural Sciences at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, specializing in physics. Jasper has spent almost twenty years working as a software engineer in the UK and in Europe, whilst also working on writing both fiction and music. In that time, he has produced the novels Twelve, Thirteen Years Later, The Third Section, The People's Will and The Last Oprichnik, as well as co-writing several musicals, including The Promised Land and Remember! Remember! He currently lives in Hove, with six rats called Olga, Irina, Masha, Star, Bugby and Beau, a dog called Bilbo and a person called Helen.