Tibor Fischer was born in Stockport in 1959 to Hungarian refugee parents. His first novel, Under the Frog's Ass, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1993. He is the author of five other novels.

A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the Royal Society of Arts, his work has appeared in twenty-five languages. He is the director of the Mathias Corvinus Collegium Literature Workshop.