Jerrard Tickell was born in Dublin and educated in Tipperary and London. Travelling extensively before the Second World War began, he joined the army in 1940 and was appointed to the War Office in 1941. Between 1943 and 1945 his official duties took him to Africa, the Middle East, Washington DC, Canada, the West Indies and Europe. He was appointed to the General Staff in 1945. His career as a writer began in 1936, with See How They Run and continued with a series of bestselling novels and biographies, Odette (1949) and Appointment with Venus (1951) being among the best known. Jerrard Tickell died in 1966.