Barry Shelby was born 1960 in Berkeley, California, and he graduated from the University of California in 1982. He later received a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University in Illinois. For 13 years, he was an editor at World Press Review magazine in Manhattan. Since moving to Scotland in 1997, he has been a castle caretaker on the Clyde Coast, as a "temp" with the national railway company, and a freelance contributor to newspapers and magazines, including the Guardian, the Glasgow Herald, and The List.