John Foster was born in Carlisle in 1941.and educated at Denstone College and Oxford University. He was a teacher for over 20 years before becoming a full-time writer. He has also worked in teacher-training at Westminster College and the Oxford Unversity Department of Educational Studies. He has written over 100 books for classroom use and is the author of the best-selling secondary school Personal Social and Health Education and Citizenship course Your Life (HarperCollins)-Routledge