Martin O'Brien was educated at the Oratory School and Hertford College Oxford. He started his career as a copy-sub, going on to become travel editor of Vogue. Having travelled all over the world, he left Vogue to write All the Girls - a traveller's tale of hookers and whorehouses around the world and then began writing travel/lifestyle features for US publications. He left journalism for a few years to co-write screenplays and start a film production company. After 20 years of living in London, Martin, his wife and two daughters moved to the countryside. He is the creator of ‘Daniel Jacquot’, Chief Inspector in the South of France. He also writes under the pseudonym 'Jack Drummond'.