Rafael Peñas Cruz has been a novelist since 2004.

He was born in Pozoblanco

Pozoblanco

Pozoblanco is a town in the province of Córdoba, southern Spain, in the north-central part of the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is located near the headwaters of the Guadamatillas and of other small sub-tributaries of the Guadiana, in the lowlands of Los Pedroches, which lie between the...

 in Cordoba

Córdoba, Spain

-History:The first trace of human presence in the area are remains of a Neanderthal Man, dating to c. 32,000 BC. In the 8th century BC, during the ancient Tartessos period, a pre-urban settlement existed. The population gradually learned copper and silver metallurgy...

 in Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

. His parents moved to Barcelona

Barcelona

Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...

 when he was young, and he graduated in English Literature from the city’s university, before coming to London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 to study and live in summer 1992.

After completing an MA in Hispanic studies at Birbeck University of London

University of London

-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...

, he worked at schools and colleges teaching Spanish and Hispanic culture, and started work at the London School of Economics

London School of Economics

The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...

 in 2000 in the Language Centre.

He married in London in 2004, the year his first novel, Las Dimensiones del Teatro (The Dimensions of the Theatre) was published.
But it was his second novel Charlie, published in 2010, that gained him international attention, after he won the Terenci Moix

Terenci Moix

Terenci Moix was a Spanish Catalan writer who wrote in Spanish and in Catalan. He is also the brother of poet/novelist Anna Maria Moix....

 Prize for Lesbian and Gay fiction.
The story was based on a young student of Cruz's from his days as a schoolmaster at the City of London School

City of London School

The City of London School is a boys' independent day school on the banks of the River Thames in the City of London, England. It is the brother school of the City of London School for Girls and the co-educational City of London Freemen's School...

in the capital.
He is now working on his third novel due for publication in 2013, and an autobiographical chronicle provisionally entitled Up and Out in Barcelona and London.

His readings of poetry on his own channel on YouTube, have attracted thousands of views.