Hugh Laurie was born in 1959. He attended Eton and Cambridge where he was an outstanding oarsman. He read anthropology at Cambridge and was president of the Footlights, an undergraduate dramatic society whose other members included Emma Thompson and Stephen Fry. He went on to team with Fry in the television series A Bit of Fry and Laurie and Jeeves and Wooster as well as appearing in Blackadder. He has acted in films including 101 Dalmations, Sense and Sensibility and Peter's Friends. He lives in London with his wife and three children and is an avid motor cyclist. The Gun Seller is his first novel.