Howard Sounes was born in England in 1965. He has worked as a newspaper journalist in Britain and abroad. He is also the author of 27: A History of the 27 Club through the Lives of Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, and Amy Winehouse, The Life of Lou Reed: Notes from the Velvet Underground, Fab: An Intimate Life of Paul McCartney, Charles Bukowski: Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life, a history of modern men's professional golf, and Fred & Rose, the best-selling book about the lives and crimes of mass murderers Fred and Rosemary West. He lives in London.