Publisher and author  David Ling was born 1949, and educated at Auckland Grammar School and the University of Auckland graduating with MA (hons) in Psychology.

David was a director of educational and general publishing companies where he worked for nearly 20 years before establishing David Ling Publishing in 1992 and the Duck Creek Press children’s imprint in 2010. He has been active on management committees in a number of industry organisations including Storylines, and Adult and Children’s Montana and NZ Post Book Award committees; for 13 years he was a councillor of the Publishers Association of New Zealand (PANZ), where in 2011 he was awarded Honorary Life Membership for his services. In the 2020 Queen’s Birthday Honours he was appointed as an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to the publishing industry.

His own authored children’s books have also sold in coeditions in the US and Canada, UK, Australia, South Africa, China, Latin America and Israel.