Arthur Clifford was born in Newcastle and was educated at Rugby School and Newcastle University. He went on to train as a teacher and subsequently taught in schools in Uganda, Scotland and England. In the late 1990s, he retained as a teacher of English as a foreign language and went on to teach English in Siberia and Budapest. He is a keen mountain climber and has climbed in the Andes and in Siberia, scaling some of the world's most famous peaks.