Ted Smith was born in Sheffield in 1938 but lived the first 27 years of his life in a mining town in South Yorkshire. In 1961, Ted graduated from King's College University, Durham (later Newcastle University) and pursued a career as a teacher. He taught foreign languages in his local Comprehensive School for seven years before moving to Marske-by-the-Sea in Middlesbrough, where he still lives today. Although retired, Ted leads an active life. He has always enjoyed cricket and came out of retirement, aged 43, to play for Marske third team. Ted also plays golf and is a member of Saltburn Golf Club. At 75 years of age, he still plays with a handicap of 13. Ted has been compiling questions for quiz nights for over 30 years and is now using this expertise to create quiz books. The idea for alphabetical general knowledge quiz books, stemmed from his past experience as a quiz master. Ted is married with two grown up daughters and five grown up grandchildren.