Ray French was born in Newport, South Wales, to Irish parents from County Wexford. He started reading philosophy at Leicester University, but after discovering that this did not consist of trying to impress women by discussing the meaning of life while drinking coffee and smoking gitanes, he dropped out in disgust and worked as a labourer for a year. Discovering labouring wasn't to his taste either, he returned to further education, this time completing a B.A. in Religious Studies at Lancaster University. Since then has worked with people with disabilities, as a stagehand, cartoonist, freelance journalist, archivist, in libraries and as a creative writing tutor.