Alexander Cordell was born in Ceylon in 1914, was educated mainly in China and joined the army in 1932. After WWII, during which he served in France, he became a civil servant, spending three years in Hong Kong.

He wrote more than thirty novels including the highly acclaimed 'Mortymer Trilogy' - The Rape of the Fair Country, The Hosts of Rebecca and Song of the Earth. He died on 13 November 1997 aged eighty-three