Tony Parsons is perhaps best known as the author of the million-selling bestseller, Man and Boy, winner of the Book of the Year Award in 2001 and translated into 38 languages.

Tony is also an award-winning journalist and broadcaster, and the author of the other runaway bestsellers, One For My Baby, Man and Wife, The Family Way (film rights optioned by Julia Roberts) and Stories We Could Tell, all published by HarperCollins.

Born in Romford in London's East End, Tony left school at the age of 16 and worked in Gordon's Gin factory in Islington until he was hired by the New Musical Express to write about the exploding punk rock and New Wave scene. Over the next few years he travelled the world writing about such figures as Blondie, The Clash, the Sex Pistols, David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen, Buzzcocks, Patti Smith, The Jam and Abba. In his early twenties, Tony was possibly the best-known and widely read music journalist in the world.

At the NME, he met his first wife Julie Burchill and they had a son, Bobby. After five years of marriage the couple porced and Tony received custody of their four year old son, who he brought up with the help of his parents and assorted girlfriends. Tony was 29 when he became a single parent, and this experience was part of the inspiration for Man and Boy. Another important influence on the book was Tony's relationship with his father, a former Royal Naval Commando who won the Distinguished Service Medal in World War Two, a decoration for valour second only to the Victoria Cross. Vic Parsons died in 1987, and more than ten years later Tony tried to capture his father's unique personality in Man and Boy. One reviewer called Man and Boy, 'A son's love letter to his father, and a father's love letter to his son.' Many critics were surprised that the former wild boy of punk rock also had a more gentle side.

In the years between the NME and Man and Boy, Tony established himself as one of the country's leading journalists and broadcasters. He wrote about travel for the Sunday Times, about men for Elle and the Guardian, and about music for the Daily Telegraph. When Piers Morgan became editor of the Daily Mirror in 1995 his first appointment was hiring Tony to write a weekly column, which he still does to this day.

Tony became a familiar face on British television with documentaries such as 'Parsons on Class', and as a regular panellist on 'Late Review' for many years. He continues to appear regularly on television and is possibly the only person who has appeared on 'Question Time' and 'Loose Women' in the same week.

His most recent novel is My Favourite Wife, which is the story of a young British family who move to Shanghai, China, for a better life. It is released in paperback in the week of the Beijing Olympics. My Favourite Wife has already been a number-one bestseller in Hong Kong, and it will be published on the Chinese mainland in 2009.

Tony Parsons lives in London with his wife of 16 years, Yuriko, and their six-year-old daughter, Jasmine.