Mark Douglas-Home is a journalist turned author, who was editor of the Herald and the Sunday Times Scotland. His career in journalism began as a student in South Africa where he edited the newspaper at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. After the apartheid government banned a number of editions of the paper, he was deported from the country. He is married with two children and lives in Edinburgh.

His books include The Sea Detective series, and The Driftwood Girls, published by Penguin.