Martin Edmond was born in Ohakune and grew up in small North Island towns. He has an MA in English language and literature from Victoria University of Wellington (1977) and a Doctorate of Creative Arts from the Universityof Western Sydney (2013). He travelled with avant-punk theatre group Red Mole in the 1970s, worked as a screenwriter in the 1980s and has, since the publication of The Autobiography of My Father in 1992, concentrated on the writing of non-fiction prose.

His books about artists include The Resurrection of Philip Clairmont (1999), The Supply Party: Ludwig Becker on the Burke & Wills Expedition (2009), Dark Night: Walking With McCahon (2011) and Mortal Things, an unpublished biography of convict artist Joseph Lycett.

He received the Prime Minister’s Award for literary achievement in non-fiction in 2013. After basing himself in Australia for many years, he moved recently to Japan, where he lives in Shinanomachi in the mountains of Honshu.