Nikos Athanasou, the son of Castellorizian parents, studied at Sydney Boys' High School (1966-71) and enrolled in Medicine at Sydney University (1971-77). From 1977 to 1979 he undertook his internship and became a resident medical officer at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney. In 1980 he went to St Bartholomew's Hospital in London where he specialised in Pathology. In 1981 he became a member of the Royal College of Physicians and in 1983 he became a clinical tutor in Pathology at the University of Oxford.
His first published fiction appeared in 1979 and later works have been included in anthologies featuring multicultural writing. A Professor of Musculoskeletal Pathology at Oxford, he has published a number of mongraphs in his field of expertise. He was a guest writer at the 2002 Sydney Writers' Festival. Athanasou has also published an account of his childhood memories of Maroubra/Kingsford in his novel, The Greek Liar (2002).
