L. C. Tyler was born in Southend, Essex, and educated at Southend High School for Boys, Jesus College Oxford and City University London. After university he joined the Civil Service and worked at the Department of the Environment in London and Hong Kong. He then moved to the British Council, where his postings included Malaysia, Thailand, Sudan and Denmark.

Since returning to the UK he has lived in Sussex and London, and was Chief Executive of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health for eleven years. He is now a full-time writer.

L. C. Tyler is the author of the Elsie and Elthelred ‘Herring’ series as well as the John Grey historical mystery series.

He has also published short stories in various anthologies and magazines, and written occasional articles for newspapers.

The Herring in the Library and Crooked Herring both won the Goldsboro Last Laugh Award (Best Comic Crime Novel Of the Year). L. C. Tyler has also been shortlisted twice in the USA for an Edger Allan Poe Award (Best Paperback Original) and has been longlisted for the CWA Dagger in the Library. His short story, Richard Remembered, won an Ian St James Award.