Matt Thorne was born in Bristol in 1974 and educated at Cambridge University and the University of St. Andrews. He is the author of six novels, including Eight Minutes Idl e, which won an Encore Award and which he adapted into a 2014 film, and Cherry , which was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize. He is also the author of three children's books and the coeditor of the anthologies All Hail the New Puritans and Croatian Nights . He teaches Creative Writing at Royal Holloway, London.