Novelist and playwright Piers Paul Read was born in Beaconsfield, England on March 7, 1941. He was educated by Benedictine Monks at Ampleforth College, York and also at St. John's College, Cambridge. Paul Piers Read is the author of numerous, critically acclaimed works of fiction and nonfiction, including "A Patriot in Berlin" (1996), "Ablaze: The Story of the Heroes and Victims of Chernobyl" (1993), "On the Third Day" (1989), and "A Season in the West" (1989).

Piers Paul Read is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and a member of the Council of the Society of Authors. He has also written a number of television plays, and several of his novels have been adapted for film and television. He lives in London.