James Smythe was born in London and now lives in West Sussex. Since receiving a PhD from Cardiff University, he has worked as both a Creative Writing teacher and as a writer/narrative designer of video games. His debut novel, Heredition, was published as part of Parthian's Bright Young Things series in 2009. His novel, The Testimony, about the voice of God, terrorism and the apocalypse, was published in April 2012 by HarperCollins (Blue Door). In December 2012, HarperCollins (Voyager) published The Explorer, a science fiction novel in the vein of 2001 and Solaris.