Conor Farrington is a debut novelist with eclectic interests ranging from contemporary British politics to the life and work of Franz Liszt. Following a childhood in rural Scotland and degrees at St Andrews and Edinburgh Universities, Conor did a PhD in Latin American politics at Cambridge, involving extended periods of fieldwork in Ecuador and a stint as a Research Associate at Harvard University. He stayed on at Cambridge for post-doctoral work, teaching on British and American politics. Conor is a keen traveller, and the Olga Pushkin series was inspired by his experience of the Trans-Siberian railway in 2015 and the Silk Route by rail in 2017. Conor wrote the first novel in the series while on parental leave looking after his daughter Acacia. He and his family currently split their time between Cambridge and Cape Town.