Magnus Mills is the author of two books of short stories as well as four previous novels, The Scheme for Full Employment, Three to See the King, All Quiet on the Orient Express, Explorers of a New Century (reissued in paperback in September 2011) and The Restraint of Beasts which won the McKitterick Prize and was shortlisted for both the Booker Prize and the Whitbread First Novel Award. The Restraint of Beasts was reissued by Bloomsbury in August 2010.

He lives in London.