David Lawrence Hancock was born in Abingdon, UK and first came to Australia in 1960. After training as an entomologist and zoologist, he spent eleven years working in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, first with Tsetse Fly Control, then later with the Plant Protection Research Institute, before becoming Curator of Entomology at the Natural History Museum in Bulawayo. After returning to Australia in 1988, he became involved in several entomological projects in Surinam, Thailand, Malaysia, the United Kingdom and Australia. During his time in Africa he served for ten years in active Reserve units of the British South Africa Police and its successor, the Zimbabwe Republic Police. He now resides in Cairns, Queensland, where he is actively working on a sequel to the present novel.