John Harvey was born in London in 1938. After studying for a Teacher Training Certificate at Goldsmiths’ College, University of London, he taught English and Drama, initially in Heanor, South East Derbyshire, and later in Andover and Stevenage. While teaching in Stevenage, he studied, part-time, for an English degree at Hatfield Polytechnic – now the University of Hertfordshire – and later, took his Masters Degree in American Studies at the University of Nottingham, where he briefly taught Film and American Literature. He is currently following a History of Art course at Birkbeck College, University of London.

Harvey has been a professional writer since 1975 and now has more than 100 published books to his credit. After a number of years spent learning his craft writing paperback fiction, he is now principally known as a writer of crime fiction, with the first of the Charlie Resnick novels, Lonely Hearts, being named by The Times as one of the 100 most notable crime novels of the last century. His books have won major prizes in Great Britain, France and America, and in 2007 he was the recipient of the Crime Writers’ Association Cartier Diamond Dagger for Sustained Excellence in Crime Writing.

He has also written for television and radio and, a published poet himself, between 1977 and 1999 ran Slow Dancer Press, publishing work by such writers as Simon Armitage and Lucille Clifton, Jill Dawson, Sharon Olds, and Carol Ann Duffy.

In 2009, he was awarded an Honorary Degree, Doctor of Letters, by the University of Nottingham.