Anthony Addis was born in London in 1971, but brought up in the Isle of Man. He moved back to London in 1990 for a teacher training course. In 1999, he began to develop an idea for a story based on Godred Crovan, who became the first king of the Isle of Man in 1079.  

In 2000 he moved to Cairo, where he stayed for two years. He wrote The Tale of the Birds during his time in Egypt.  A year in Brighton followed, where he wrote a contemporary novel, The Mask Slips, inspired by his travels in Sri Lanka. 

He spent two more years overseas, this time in Kuala Lumpur. He travelled extensively all over South East Asia, and wrote a fantasy novel, The Concubines Son, that is set in a fantasy version of medieval Vietnam.

He now lives in South-East London, and is currently writing a sequel to The Tale of the Birds.