His was born on Earth to British parents in the Netherlands. His father
was a researcher into languages and antiquities who travelled around
the world a lot collecting. He spent most of his time restoring old
books. His mother left when he was very young and ran off with a Chinese
diplomat. They moved several times, mainly to Berlin and Strasbourg.
Due to his mothers absence and his father having a greater interest
in books than family he spent most of his time reading through the schools
library of books, he insisted on real books as the computer screens
made his eyes hurt.
After he finished university he spent his time attending extra courses
in the Federations literary centre in Tokyo before deciding to get away
from earth and find a nice isolated backwater planet where he could
sit around books all day and hopefully no one will buy them.