In an interview with David Mitchell, he stated: "I was drawn to writing about individuals and societies in moments that are often extreme, and often at times of defeat, be they personal or broader, or both.

He was educated at Batley Grammar School, Wakefield College[3] and Manchester Polytechnic, which he left in 1991 to go to Istanbul to teach English.

[10] He followed GB84 with another fact-based fictional piece, The Damned Utd (2006), which is based on Brian Clough's fateful 44-day spell in 1974 as manager of Leeds United Football Club.

Former footballer and manager Johnny Giles threatened to sue Peace for The Damned Utd as to what he perceived were gross untruths in the book.

[14] Peace's novel Red or Dead, about Bill Shankly and the rise of Liverpool Football Club, was published in August 2013 and was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize that year.

[17] It is the first of Peace's novels to be set outside of Yorkshire and forms the first part of a trio of books on the U.S. military occupation of Japan.

The second book, published in August 2009, is called Occupied City, a Rashomon-like telling of the Hirasawa Sadamichi case in Tokyo in 1948.