John Titford, born in Holloway Road, London, was educated at Haberdashers' Aske's School Hampstead/Elstree, St John's College, Cambridge, the Sorbonne in Paris and at the universities of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and San Francisco. Formerly a teacher and lecturer in English language and literature in schools and colleges, he now lives in Derbyshire, where he works as a writer, broadcaster, researcher and genealogical bookseller. He has lectured regularly on family history, dialect and related topics throughout Britain, in the United States of America, New Zealand and elsewhere. The author of a number of books on dialect, communication and media studies and family history, he is a liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Scriveners, Chairman of Examiners for the Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies, and was elected a Fellow of the Society of Genealogists in 2004.