J. Patrick Armstrong was born in 1968 and grew up on the south coast of England. After leaving school in 1985, he trained and worked as a hairdresser before returning to full-time education in 1996 and completing his MA, MPhil and PhD in English and American literature at the University of Glasgow. He has worked as a teacher and lecturer in the UK and Taiwan. Now settled with his family in Dorset, Lyttleton Siren Lyttleton Siren is his first novel.