Robert Lyman was a British Army officer for twenty years, having been commissioned in the Light Infantry. Born in New Zealand, he was educated in Melbourne, Australia and at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He is a much respected military historian and an acknowledged authority on the campaign in Burma. His previous works include a brilliant study of Field Marshal Bill Slim, the architect of the Allied victories at Imphal and Kohima and of the subsequent campaign that destroyed the Japanese armies in Burma and the siege of Tobruk 1941. He is Chairman of the Kohima Educational Trust.
He lives near Reading, Berkshire.