China Miéville (pronounced mee-AY-vill) grew up in London, went to boarding school, worked in Egypt and Zimbabwe for a year, and then earned degrees from Cambridge and the London School of Economics. His first novel, King Rat, was a dark urban gothic take on "The Pied Piper of Hamlin". It was followed to much acclaim by Perdido Street Station, set in the imaginary, grotesque world of New Crobuzon; the book won the Arthur C. Clarke Award and the British Fantasy Award. The Scar was set in the same world. He currently lives in London.