Tim Hillier-Graves was born in North London in 1951. On leaving university he served with the Royal Navy seeing wide service on land and sea. For much of this time he specialised in weapons development projects, specifically missiles and heavyweight torpedoes, and worked alongside BAe, Marconi Space and Defence Systems and McDonnell Douglas in the process.

In support of this work he undertook prolonged periods of study and research at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, and the Royal Military College of Science, Shrivenham. Late in his career he changed specialisms and focussed on Human Resource Management and outsourcing, then as an Assistant Director took on responsibility of housing for military personnel.

He retired in 2011 to concentrate more fully on writing and has had a number of books and articles on the Navy, railway engineering, aviation and military history published since the 1970s. All the royalties from his books have been and will be donated to Cancer Research UK in memory of his many relatives and friends who have succumbed to these illnesses.