Nicholas St Aubyn was born in 1955. After a scholarship to Oxford, where he studied politics and philosophy, he worked in the City and then ran West Country businesses, winning awards for enterprise and innovation. He fought the constituency of Truro three times, including the 1987 by-election, before becoming MP for Guildford, where he pioneered the Academy model for schools. His first novel, Custom of the County, was published in 2010.
He lives in the Surrey Hills with wife Jane, children, grandchildren and dogs.