Michael Arditti was born in Cheshire and educated at Jesus College, Cambridge. He began his literary career writing plays, of which several were produced on the stage and the radio. He has written theatre criticism for The Times, The Sunday Times, Daily Mail and Sunday Express, and was, for many years, a regular reviewer for the Evening Standard. He currently reviews books for several papers and is a regular broadcaster on the BBC. His novel Easter, published in 2000, won the first Waterstone's Mardi Gras Award and was shortlisted for the Creative Freedom Award. Unity (2005) was shortlisted for the 2006 Wingate / Jewish Quarterly Literary Prize.