David Muirhead was born and raised in East Africa and his fascination and love for African wildlife began at an early age. He was educated at schools in Uganda, Kenya and the UK, and attended St Andrews University in Scotland, graduating with a degree in Philosophy. His career has spanned finance, trade development, economic research, publishing and journalism, and he has worked all over Africa, as well as in Europe and the Middle East. He is currently a freelance journalist and writes for magazines, notably Wildside, a South African ecotourism and nature conservation magazine which he founded in 1999 in partnership with KwaZulu-Natal Nature Conservation (now KZN Wildlife). He has authored several books, including The Curious Case of the Imaginary Tourist, a collection of satirical and humorous short stories which drew acclaim from the British press, and a novel, The Clamour King, published in London. Random House's Struik Nature imprint published his two anthologies of riotous, irrespectable essays on animals, which have been combined into one volume for North America. He now lives near Cape Town and is married with two children and two grandchildren. His daughter and her family live in Jacksonville Beach, Florida.