Paul graduated from the University of Warwick in 2011 and spent most of the next year living in Sri Lanka, teaching English in schools and travelling the country, spending time among the ruins both ancient and modern. He also worked in Atlantis, a volunteer bookshop in Santorini, but came home to study on the creative writing MA at the UEA. He rode out the financial crisis there, doing internships and placements at literary magazines, also working as an archivist and freelance book reviewer. His novel, River of Ink, was published by Bloomsbury in 2015.