Bahiyyih Nakhjavani was born in Iran, grew up in Uganda and was educated in Britain. Thoroughly confused about who she was, where she came from and what she should be doing, she then completed a doctorate – (which no one will ever read but which was great fun to write) – about peeping Toms in erotic poetry of the 16th century. This naturally prepared her for a brilliant career as a teacher of English grammar to Canadian, American, Cypriot, Sierra Leonian and French students, none of whom benefited in the slightest from her exertions but all of whom taught her the dark arts of escapism and fiction.

She currently lives in France where she has been inspiring people to waste their time and wasting her own for the past twenty years.