Christopher Priest was born in Cheshire, England. He began writing soon after leaving school and has been a full-time freelance writer since 1968. He has published eighteen novels, five short story collections, and a number of other books, including critical works, ghosted autobiographies, novelizations, and children’s non-fiction.

As well as appearing in the UK and USA, his books have been translated into twenty-three languages around the world. His most recent novel, Airside, was published in May 2023.

He has won numerous literary awards, including The James Tait Black Memorial Prize and The World Fantasy Award for The Prestige, and The Arthur C. Clarke Award for The Separation. Priest has also won awards abroad, such as the Kurd Lasswitz Award (Germany), the Eurocon Award (Yugoslavia), the Ditmar Award (Australia), and Le Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire (France). In 2001, he was awarded the Prix Utopia (France) for lifetime achievement.

The Prestige was adapted for film and released by Warner Bros in 2006 to critical acclaim. It received two Academy Award nominations and was directed by Christopher Nolan. It is often described as Nolan’s best film to date.

As a journalist, he has written features and reviews for The Times, the Guardian, the Independent, the New Statesman, The Spectator, the Washington Post, and many different magazines. He is a regular obituarist for the Guardian.

In 1983, Christopher Priest was selected as one of the Best of Young British Novelists. In 2007, an exhibition of installation art based on his novel The Affirmation was mounted at the Chelsea Art Gallery in London. In 2017, an exhibition of art inspired by his novel The Prestige was mounted at the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, at Michigan State University in East Lansing.

Christopher Priest is Vice-President of the H G Wells Society. He lives on the Isle of Bute in the west of Scotland, with his partner, the writer Nina Allan.