Peter Corris's first novel was published in 1980 and he has been a full time writer since 1982. He was born inStawell,Victoria in 1942. After taking a Master's degree at Monash University and a PhD at the Australian National University (both in History), he was an academic, teaching and researching in various universities and a College of Advanced Education until 1975 when he gave up academia for journalism. He was literary editor of The National Times, 1980-81, and is the author of the famous Cliff Hardy crime novels. He has travelled and lived for short periods in the Pacific,Britain, Europe and theUSA. His interests are reading and writing, weight training, golf (which he plays off a very high handicap), walking the dog, swimming and films. He is married to writer Jean Bedford and they have three daughters. He lives on the Illawarra coast ofNSW.