David Darling

Darling's father was a contact lens pioneer married to an Australian; they had 7 children. In his early life Darling lived on three continents—in the UK, in the Netherlands, in Australia, in France and in Canada—before finally settling in Crewkerne, Somerset. While in France, the family lived on a boat and traveled through the country, settling for a time in Cap d'Agde.

Darling and his brother were influenced to learn computer coding at a young age by their grandfather, an electronic engineer, who designed some of the first colour TVs in Australia. Later, when they moved to Canada at age 11, their maths teacher introduced them to computer programming and they used the school computer room with the help of a friendly janitor. Darling would often stay behind after school to program, as there was only one keyboard available in the classroom. During the day he would have to use punch cards while other children had access to the sole keyboard.

Darling moved to England when he was 13 and attended Wadham School where he took classes in Computer Studies. Darling has said that while the school was generally encouraging about new technology but very discouraging about games. On one occasion he submitted course work about a computer game and was told "computer games are a waste of time".

He lives in Ashorne House, Ashorne, Warwickshire, England.