Background
Smith was born in Gloucestershire to a family of teachers originally from the Rhondda Valley in South Wales.
Smith was born in Gloucestershire to a family of teachers originally from the Rhondda Valley in South Wales.
He was educated at Christ College, Brecon and read English at Street John"s College, Cambridge.
A career English teacher, he is best known for his novels and has written numerous radio plays. Smith took up his first teaching job at Loretto School near Edinburgh in Scotland. After a brief stint at Melbourne Grammar School in Australia, he taught at Tonbridge School for the rest of his career and was head of English for 17 years.
He published several novels during his teaching career before retiring in 2003 to concentrate on writing.
His former pupils at Tonbridge include Sir Anthony Seldon, musician Kit Hesketh-Harvey, novelist Vikram Seth, poet Christopher Reid and actor Dan Stevens.