Tony was born in July 1971 in Chessington, Surrey, once home to the Zoo and now The World of Adventures and his first employer, flipping burgers there all summer long. From Lovelace Junior to Tiffin School for Boys in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, he landed in Exeter in October 1989 to read Modern Languages, via a gap year in Columbia and a stint as a campsite courier in France for Canvas Holidays.

On day one at uni, he walked into the campus radio station, University Radio Exeter (now Xpression FM) and that became his home until the local station (the now defunct) Devonair and its sister, Plymouth Soundoffered him their evening show in 1991.

Graduating with a 2:2 in 1993, including a year spent at the University of Rome and of Padua, Devonair’s parent company GWR persuaded him to ditch his plans and move to Wiltshire to front their breakfast show.

By 1996, he was at Metro Radio in the North East of England, leaving for Capital Radio-owned Century across the North West in 2000, only to return to Metro in 2004 for seven more years.

By 2011, his writing career was established as a columnist for the Evening Chronicle in Newcastle upon Tyne and as a ghost, finding himself right at the heart of the PC David Rathband story with Tango 190 – the second best-seller at the time, for the publisher, Biteback.

After 25 years of breakfast shows, he made the decision to concentrate on books, opting for a daytime shift on the air for UTV/The Wireless Group.

He ceased all professional radio in 2018 and now concentrates on ghostwriting and podcasting.

He is based in the hills of Lancashire, 30 minutes outside of Manchester.