Robert Allan Houston was born in Hamilton, Scotland, lived in India and Ghana, and was educated at the Edinburgh Academy and St Andrews University before spending six years at Cambridge University as a research student (Peterhouse) and research fellow (Clare College). He has worked at the University of St Andrews since 1983 and is Professor of Early Modern History, specialising in British social history. He is a fellow of both the Royal Historical Society and the Royal Society of Edinburgh (Scotland's national academy), and a member of the Academia Europaea. He is married to a university manager and lives in Edinburgh.