Ian Irvine developed a career as a marine scientist, gaining a PhD from The University of Sydney. His work included jobs in various Asian and Pacific countries and he prepared guidelines for Australia's marine conservation programme.
In the late 1980s Irvine returned to some preparatory materials he had worked on during the previous decade and the result was his The View from the Mirror Quartet. The final volume of the series was published in 1999 and Irvine has been a full-time writer since then.
(Source: Author's website, http://members.ozemail.com.au/~irvinei/story.html)