Duncan Barrett was born in 1983 in London. He is a writer and editor of biographies and memoirs. He is the editor of Ronald Skirth's pacifist First World War memoir, The Reluctant Tommy, in 2010. In 2012 Barrett co-wrote, The Sugar Girls, with Nuala Calvi. The story tells of female workers at Tate and Lyle's East End factories since the Second World War. It quickly became a best-seller. In 2013 the duo put out their second book together, GI Brides. It was based on interviews with British women who married Americans during the Second World War. It soon became a Sunday Times best-seller. Their third book, The Girls Who went to War, went to the Sunday Times best-seller list in 2015.