Mitchell Symons was born in 1957 in London and educated at Mill Hill School and the LSE, where he studied Law. Since leaving BBC TV, where he was a researcher and then a director, he has worked as a writer, broadcaster and journalist. He was a principal writer of early editions of the board game Trivial Pursuit and has devised many television formats. He wrote an award-winning weekly column for the Daily Express and currently writes a weekly column for the Sunday Express. He has written over sixty books - including fifteen for children with more in various stages of preparation. He has won the Blue Peter Best Book With Facts Award for the past two years running. In naming Mitchell as the friend he would phone (as a Phone-A-Friend) if he were appearing on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, Chris Tarrant said: "Mitch knows more totally useless things about useless subjects than anybody on earth".