His parents moved to Barcelona when he was young, and he graduated in English Literature from the city's university, before coming to London to study in summer 1989, and live from 1992 onwards.

He married in London in 2004, the year his first novel, Las Dimensiones del Teatro (The Dimensions of the Theatre)[4] was published under the name Rafael Peñas.

The story was loosely based on a young student of Cruz's, Charlie Aldridge, from his days as a schoolmaster at the City of London School in the capital.

He is also developing a website The Quince Jelly Tin [7] quincejellytin.com which is - in his words - a writing project to turn old photographic albums into stories, thereby creating a repository of people's lives.

[10] Goatstar Books followed up The Poetry of Science with Popping Corn, a translation of the work of Spanish surrealist poet Mendigo Diego into English.