Educated at Stowe and Trinity College, Dublin, where he read law, Stuart McKibbin joined the army and served in the Intelligence Corps. On leaving the army it was as a so-called management trainee with a succession of large companies that he first came into contact with the various styles of management, its disorders and its laws. He has also contributed articles to the Guardian, Campaign and Punch and light verse to the Today programme on Radio 4. Deciding that he was not cut out for management he became an advertising copywriter. A specialist in direct marketing he currently works as a creative (not, he is at pains to emphasize, management) consultant. He and his wife live near Ashdown Forest.