Tames Berry was born in 1925 in Jamaica, grew up there, and has used it as the setting for most of his fiction.

When twenty-three years old, he moved to England where he became an educator and literary scholar, publishing Bluefoot Traveller: An Anthology of West Indian Poets in Britain in 1976 (revised 1981).

In addition to his scholarship and writing fiction, Berry has published two collections of poetry,Fractured Circles (1979) and When I Dance: Poems (1988). Featuring a deft prose style and fine depictions of life in Jamaica, A Thief in the Village was declared a Coretta Scott King Award honor book.

Although he did not begin writing fiction for young readers until late in his life, Berry has in less than a decade established himself as a distinguished voice in the field of young adult literature.