Steven studied English at Oxford University where he produced the world premiere of a Samuel Beckett play. A career in teaching followed, taking him to Sussex and Leicester as well as spells in Sudan and Ethiopia before taking up the post of Head of English at Kimbolton School, where he remained for over twenty years before his retirement in 2018. Alongside an obsession with Portsmouth FC he has a broad range of literary interests from Shakespeare and Donne to Keith Douglas and P G Wodehouse.