Poet and novelist Tobias Hill was born in London, England, on 30 March 1970. He read English at Sussex University and spent two years teaching in Japan. He is the author of three collections of poetry: Year of the Dog (1995); Midnight in the City of Clocks (1996), influenced by his experiences living in Japan; and Zoo (1998), which coincided with his tenure as Poet in Residence at London Zoo as part of the Poetry Places scheme administered by the Poetry Society. He is also the author of an acclaimed collection of short stories, Skin (1997), which won the PEN/Macmillan Silver Pen Award. Adaptations of his poetry and short stories have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4. He has also worked as rock critic for the Sunday Telegraph newspaper in London and as the poetry editor of the Richmond Review. His fiction includes the novels Underground, published in 1999, a dark story set on the London Underground system; and The Love of Stones (2001), spanning six centuries in the tale of a long-lost jewel once owned by Elizabeth I. The book has been published in seven languages and in 11 countries and is being developed as a film by Granada Films. His third novel, The Cryptographer, the story of a mysterious and charming quadrillionaire, who is the creator of the world's first great electric currency, will be published in 2003.
