Colin Bateman was born in Newtownards, Co.Down, Northern Ireland in June 1962. Moving to Bangor he attended attended Ballyholme Primary School and then Bangor Grammar School..

For many years he was the deputy editor of the County Down Spectator. He received a Northern Ireland press award for his weekly satirical column, and a Journalist's Fellowship to Oxford University. His first novel, Divorcing Jack, won the Betty Trask Prize in 1994.