Stephen Leather

He grew up in the Village and Chorlton-cam-Hardy, suburbs of Manchester. He graduated from the Manchester School of Letters. In 1978, he received a bachelor's degree in biochemistry from the University of Bath.

He worked as a biochemist in Imperial Chemical Industries, a worker in a limestone quarry, a baker, a gas station attendant, a bartender, an employee in the tax administration. Collaborated with the British newspapers Glasgow Herald, Daily Mirror, The Times, Daily Mail and Hong Kong South China Morning Post.