Jamie Keeling has never known an ‘ordinary’ life. He spent his earliest years living at Little Rhonda, the private zoo of Gordon Mills, the legendary music manager behind Tom Jones, Engelbert Humperdinck and Gilbert O’Sullivan. He later moved to Monkey World in Dorset, where he lived until his late teens. The renowned primate rescue centre was co-founded by his father, zoologist Jeremy Keeling, whose work there made him a familiar face through the long-running television series, Monkey Life. Growing up among rescued primates, dedicated conservationists and more than a few larger-than-life personalities gave Jamie a lifelong love of animals and an endless supply of stories long before he ever thought of writing one down.

 

While Jamie's professional career has spanned IT, mechanics, tattooing and leatherwork, storytelling runs in his veins. His father and paternal grandparents, Clinton and Gill Keeling, were all published authors, while his maternal grandfather, William Tucker MBE, was a historian and prolific writer, continuing a family tradition of journalism stretching back four generations. Inspired by that legacy, Jamie now writes fantasy without feeling constrained by genre, and lives aboard a narrowboat he renovated himself with his dog, Biscuit.