Philip Shuff was born in Staffordshire, went to school in Derbyshire and now lives in Cheshire, which suggests a stay-at-home. However, during the hippie sixties he spent three and a half years hitching, working and travelling around the world, taught English in Greece and Japan and tried to persuade sheep to grow more wool in Australia. After retiring from work with an oil company he has enjoyed a second adolescence sailing, gliding and travelling. He has a Japanese wife, two daughters and four grandchildren.