Stephen was born in England in the 1960s. Memories of his early life were a happy blur until short-sightedness was finally diagnosed when he started school. Despite the childhood specs he was keen on sports, (apart from those where hard projectiles are hurled), and developed a love of the outdoors. Stephen was educated at Stamford School, a traditional grammar school in the market town of the same name. Books and reading have been a lifelong passion. After school Stephen went to Sheffield University and studied medicine, where he kept his love of writing alive by contributing to student magazines. Medicine has led him into some unusual locations - such as time as a student intern in Borneo - and a couple of years after graduation the attraction of a working holiday in New Zealand became too much.

It's now over twenty years since Stephen came to New Zealand and not long after that met his wife. It was during coastal walks with his young family that the idea for ‘The Secret of Spirits Bay’ and its sequel first came to life.

Stephen lives with his family on the North Shore in Auckland and works both as an author and as a Family Doctor in Warkworth, north of Auckland.