Peter Saunders was born and educated in Croydon, England. He spent more than twenty years teaching sociology at the University of Sussex, where he still holds the title of Professor Emeritus. He also taught in universities in Australia, New Zealand, Germany and the United States. He built an international academic reputation with books on city life, home ownership, social inequality and meritocracy, but in 1999 he abandoned his academic career and went to live in Australia to work in public policy think tanks. He continued to publish on social issues such as poverty and welfare reform, but he also began commenting on current affairs in the press and on radio and television. By the time he returned to Britain in 2008, the Sydney Morning Herald hailed him as 'the most prominent liberal intellectual' in Australia. He is now developing another new career, as a fiction writer. The Versailles Memorandum is his first full-length novel.

'He has been the most prominent liberal intellectual in Australia, combining strong opinions with considerable talent as a writer and radio guest' (Sydney Morning Herald, June 14 2008)

"Peter Saunders is possibly the most important liberal intellectual in Australia… He is the antithesis of an Ivory Tower intellectual. He did the research and wrote the books, but he was also contantly engaged in the battle of ideas in the broadsheet media, the ABC and public debate. More than that, Peter didn't just talk the talk. He did it with humour, wit and style. He critiques clichés about class, but he's a class act" (ABC Radio National Counterpoint, 9 June 2008)

"It's hard to turn a newspaper page without hearing from the relentless libertarian, Peter Saunders. A former professor of sociology at the University of Sussex, Saunders uses spare and stylish English to mow down paddocks of sacred cows" (The Australian, 23 May 2008)