The only child of a headmistress and a naval officer, Martin O'Brien was educated at the Oratory School and Hertford College Oxford. He started his career as a copy-sub, going on to become Travel Editor of Vogue. Having travelled all over the world in some style, he left Vogue to write ALL THE GIRLS - a traveller's tales of hookers and whorehouses around the world ('I must have been mad - but it was fun') and then began writing travel/lifestyle features for US publications. He left journalism for a few years to co-write screenplays and start a film production company.

After 20 years of living in London, Martin, his wife and two daughters moved to the countryside, where he started to write the Jacquot books...