Tom Fort grew up in Berkshire and was educated at Eton and Oxford. After working as a reporter on a local newspaper he joined BBC Radio News, where for many years he pursued a career 'unusual for its lack of distinction'. He was the Financial Times' angling correspondent for sixteen years and has written for The Daily Telegraph and The Guardian. He is a also contributor to The Field, Trout & Salmon, Waterlog, Shooting Times and other magazines. He is the author of The Far from Compleat Angler (Merlin Unwin Books); and a social history of lawns and lawnmowers, The Grass is Greener and a history of eels and eel fishing, The Book of Eels. He is also co-author of Bright Waters, a celebration of Irish Game, Coarse and Sea Angling (Merlin Unwin Books) with Niall Fallon. He has edited a number of fishing books, including The Best of Zane Grey, and Sheringham's An Angler For All Seasons. Tom's other enthusiasms, in addition to fishing, include playing and watching cricket and rugby union.

He is married to Helen, has three children and continues to regard himself as a Berkshire man, even though he now lives just across the border in south Oxfordshire.