David Dyer grew up in Shellharbour, NSW, and after leaving school attended the Australian Maritime College in Tasmania. He travelled the world on merchant ships before returning to NSW to study arts and law at Sydney University. He was a solicitor for several years in Sydney and London, and then retrained as an English teacher. He was awarded a Doctorate in Creative Arts by the University of Technology, Sydney in 2014. The Midnight Watch is his first novel.