SGM Ashcroft was born in 1963 in High Wycombe. He has been a journalist since 1987, working on local and national newspapers, before an 18-month stint in Beijing in the early 90s as a copy editor on the China Daily. After a spell in corp comms, he moved into computer magazines, and then on to the BBC. He has been freelance since 2005. Hack is his debut novel, with a second in the series due out in mid-2021. He lives with his family in West London.