David Phillips was born in 1941 and educated at Dartford Grammar School, St John’s College, Cambridge, and St John’s College, Oxford. He has been a university lecturer in Saudi Arabia and Iraq, and a British Council officer in the Trucial States (now the United Arab Emirates), Oman, and Yemen. He subsequently worked as a fundraising consultant specialising in churches and cathedrals. Architecture has been his long-standing passion. He lives in Much Wenlock, Shropshire.