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Bali Rai was born in Leicester in 1971 and grew up in a multicultural, multi-racial community close to the city centre. As a child he dreamt about three things—playing football for Liverpool FC, being Bob Marley and becoming a writer. At the age of eleven he read the book that would inspire him to write. It was The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole by Sue Townsend. Other authors had inspired him to write for fun but it was Sue Townsend who became his true role model.
In 1991, after attending Judgemeadow Community College and QE II Sixth Form in Leicester, Rai moved to London to attend Southbank University. He graduated in 1994 with a degree in Politics. For the next two years he did various jobs until personal circumstances forced him to return to Leicester. Over the next few years he worked for a large supermarket, in telesales, as a bar manager and then as assistant manager of a nightclub. It was during this latter period that he began to write his first novel, arranged Marriage.
Eventually he showed parts of his debut novel to Jennifer Luithlen, an agent based in Leicester, and she took him on. The novel, having been edited, was then shown to Transworld and he signed his first publishing contract. The novel was published in 2001 to great acclaim.
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