Tom Rob Smith was born in London in 1979. Educated at St. John's College Cambridge, he founded InPrint, edited the May Anthologies, an Oxbridge collection of short stories, and his play Losing Voices was produced by the prestigious Marlowe Society, the first student play they had ever funded.

After graduating in 2001, he received the Harper Wood creative writing fellowship and worked on several long-running television shows as a writer and a script editor. Shortly thereafter he sold his first screenplay which won him a commission to adapt a short story by British science fiction writer Jeff Noon.

Tom's debut novel, Child 44, is a dynamic and exciting thriller set in Soviet Russia in 1953, inspired by the true-life case of Andrei Chikatilo. It was placed on the long list for the 2008 Booker Prize and Tom won a Galaxy Book Award for Best Newcomer in 2009. The film rights for Child 44 have been optioned by Ridley Scott. 

His follow-up novel, The Secret Speech, is published by Simon and Schuster and was in the top ten of The Sunday Times bestsellers list.

Visit Tom's website.