Pip Vaughan-Hughes was born in London in 1964 and grew up in Devon. Pip also writes under the name Philip Kazan. He studied Medieval History at London University. Having been warned by his family that he should on no account ever become a freelance writer, he worked in the publishing industry in London and New York, dabbled in landscape gardening and journalism and co-owned a restaurant in Vermont, before he decided that the best advice is the advice that you ignore, and turned to writing full time.

Pip is the author of Relics, Vault of Bones, Painted in Blood, and The Fools’ Crusade (the Petroc of Auneford quartet) and Appetite. His latest novel, The Painter of Souls is a speculative look at the early career of Fra Filippo Lippi, an extraordinary journey of passion, art and intrigue, taking us to a time and place in Italy’s history where desire reigns and salvation is found in the strangest of places.

Pip now lives on the edge of Dartmoor with his wife, three children and a very large black cat.