Peter Dickinson was born in Livingstone, Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia on December 16, 1927. He received a bachelor of arts degree at King's College, Cambridge in 1951. He served in the British Army and was an assistant editor and reviewer for Punch Magazine for seventeen years. His first book, The Weathermonger, was published in 1968. He has written over 50 books for adults and young adults. His works for adults include Death of a Unicorn, Skeleton-in-Waiting, Perfect Gallows, The Yellow Room Conspiracy, and Some Deaths Before Dying. His works for young adults include Tulka, The Iron Lion, The Ropemaker, Angel Isle, and In the Palace of the Khans. He has won several awards including the… Boston Globe Horn Book Award in 1989 for Eva, the Carnegie Medal twice, and the Crime Writer's Golden Dagger twice. He was awarded the O.B.E in 2009 for services to literature.