Philip Ridley was born in the East End of London. He studied painting at St Martin's School of Art in London and graduated in 1984. Since then, Ridley's paintings have been successfully exhibited in numerous exhibitions. He is now 30 years old and has also written a novel called Mr. Fury's Puzzles. (It was published by Penguin Books in 1989.) In 1990, Hamish Hamilton published a collection of Ridley's short stories called Flamingo in Orbit. He wrote the screenplay for the recent successful film The Krays and also wrote and directed another feature film Mirrorskin, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 1990. Leviathan was first published in a collection of short stories by young British writers entitled 20 Under 35, printed published by Septer Books in 1988. Illustrations by Emily Bud.