Eric Brown was born in Haworth, Yorkshire, in May 1960, and began writing in 1975. In the 1980's he traveled extensively throughout Greece and Asia (some of his novels are set in India). His first publication was in 1982, when his play for children, Noel's Ark, appeared.

His career took off in the late eighties with a succession of short stories in Interzone and other publications. His story The Time-Lapsed Man won the Interzone readers' poll for the most admired story of 1988, and an Eastercon short text award in 1995. He was voted the Best New European SF writer of the Year in the early nineties and has subsequently won the British Science Fiction Award twice.