[1] Born in Hainault in Essex as Stephen Victor Knight, he attended West Hatch Technical High School, at nearby Chigwell.

He was not successful academically,[2] and after leaving school at 16 Knight went to work as a salesman for the London Electricity Board in Chigwell.

[4] Nevertheless, the book became a bestseller,[citation needed] and was the inspiration for several works of fiction, among them the film Murder by Decree (1979) by Bob Clark and the graphic novel From Hell by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell.

[5] He began to experience epileptic seizures in 1977, and in 1980 was discovered to have a brain tumour while taking part in a documentary for the Horizon television series.

The couple later separated, and in November 1980 Knight announced that, when his divorce came through, he would marry Lesley Newson, a researcher on Horizon.