Hugh Ashton was born in Ramsgate, Kent, and after moving with his family to Norton-on-Tees, and then to Stafford, graduated from the University of Cambridge with a degree in philosophy (which would have been better than a lower second if he hadn't spent so much time playing bass guitar). Following graduation, he spent some time supporting confused computer users in the NHS and other organisations before moving to Japan to write manuals for audio makers there.

He spent 28 years in that country, during which time he met and married his wife Yoshiko, lived through one of the most severe disasters to hit Japan (the March 11 2011 earthquake and tsunami with the ensuring Fukushima meltdowns), worked in international finance houses and as a business and technical journalist, contributed a number of articles to inflight magazines, and started his fiction writing career, eventually being published by Inknbeans Press of California.

In 2016, family reasons prompted a return to the UK, where he now lives with Yoshiko in the cathedral city of Lichfield. The death of the founder of Inknbeans Press in December 2017 forced him to re-publish his books, along with those of a few others, under his own imprint, j-views Publishing, where he also offers editorial and design services to other writers.