David Wishart was born in Arbroath, Scotland. He studied Classics at Edinburgh University, and after a spell of teaching Latin and Greek in secondary school retrained as a teacher of English as a Foreign Language, working for various companies in Kuwait, Greece and Saudi Arabia. He returned to Scotland in 1990, and lives in Carnoustie, Angus. His first book, 'I, Virgil', was published in 1995; 'Ovid' - the first of the Marcus Corvinus series - followed a year later. He is married to Rona and has two children and (currently) four grandchildren.