Born in London in 1973, Giles Bolton has been closely involved in Africa and development for more than ten years as an aid worker and diplomat. 

His interest in Africa first developed in undergraduate courses at the University of Edinburgh, where he also did volunteer work for Oxfam in Scotland.  It was compounded by a subsequent visit to the spectacularly beautiful country of Kenya.  A career in the aid world appealed as both worthy and terribly glamorous to a "palm-tree addled mind".

The reality was more sober. Between 1996 and 2007 Giles worked for the Department for International Development, including posts as head of the British aid programme in Rwanda, where DFID was the largest bilateral donor, and as deputy head of the International Trade Department. 

The frustration and hypocrisy of overall western efforts in Africa led Bolton to leave government in spring 2007 and publish his first book, Poor Story - An Insider Uncovers How Globalisation and Good Intentions Have Failed the World's Poor (Ebury, April 2007). It is a highly accessible guide to poverty, aid and trade - and to why rich countries almost never deliver what they promise.