Born in 1940, Ray Connolly was brought up in Lancashire and attended the London School of Economics, where he read social anthropology. Beginning in 1967, he interviewed many Sixties pop stars for the London Evening Standard. He has also written for The Sunday Times, The Times, The Daily Telegraph, the Daily Mail and The Observer. Much of his journalism about the Beatles over 40 years has been compiled into his book The Ray Connolly Beatles Archive. His non-fiction includes Being Elvis: A Lonely Life and Being John Lennon: A Restless Life. His novels include Sunday Morning, Shadows on a Wall and Love out of Season, while for cinema he wrote the original screenplays That'll Be The Day and Stardust, and for television the series Lytton's Diary and Perfect Scoundrels. He wrote and directed the TV documentary James Dean: The First American Teenager, as well as plays for radio and short stories. His novella Sorry Boys, You Failed the Audition imagines what would have happened if the Beatles hadn't never been signed to a record label. He is married and lives in London.