[1] Chris Priestley grew up in Wales and Gibraltar, where as a nine-year-old, he won a medal in a local newspaper's story-writing competition.

In 1976, after spending his teens in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, he left to study illustration at Manchester Polytechnic,[citation needed] leaving in 1980 to freelance in London.

Tales of Terror from the Black Ship won a CPNB Vlag and Wimpel in 2010 for the Dutch translation.

[5] The German translation of Uncle Montague’s Tales of Terror was shortlisted for a Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis in 2011.

[6] Tales of Terror from the Tunnel's Mouth won the Dracula Society Children of the Night Award in 2009.