John Patience was born in Lancashire, England, in 1949 and trained in typography and book design at the Harris College in Preston, Lancashire. After college, he worked briefly as a designer for a couple of publishers in London, England but he really wanted to have his own children's books published. He did various jobs to earn a living, whilst writing and developing his skills as an illustrator.

John's first self-authored illustrated children's book was published in 1980 - 'The Seasons in Fern Hollow'. Over the next few years this grew into four further series called 'Tales from Fern Hollow', eventually totalling 17 titles.

Since then John has had more than 100 titles published in many countries around the world and translated into many languages. He has written, designed and illustrated both "flat" books and pop-up books.

He lives with his wife in rural France and as well as his writing and illustrating he enjoys producing digital sculptures.