Jon Mackley worked in Film Production and Public Relations before attending the University of Stirling as a mature student to study a degree in English Studies. Here, he discovered a passion for Medieval Literature and he continued to study, first a Master's Degree in Late Medieval Studies and then a PhD in Latin and Anglo-Norman Literature at the University of York. 

He is currently Senior Lecturer for the BA English degree at the University of Northampton, and is Associate Professor at Richmond University, the American International University in London. His novels include The Gawain Legacy, Crossing the Threshold, Cthulhu Rising and Twisting Fate's Arm. He has also published a full-length study on The Legend of St Brendan, translations of the Anglo-Norman St Brendan and The Origins of the Giants. He has also edited a gothic novel called Who's The Murderer? or The Mysteries of the Forest by Eleanor Sleath (a contemporary of Jane Austen) and has written several articles on medieval and gothic literature.