Iain Zaczek was born in Dundee, Scotland, and educated at Wadham College, Oxford, and the Courtauld Institute of Art, before forging a prolific career as a freelancer writer, widely published on a range of topics across art and design. His specialisms include fairies in art and book illustration, the work of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood of artists and illustrators, the International Gothic period, and the legends and history of Celtic art and culture.