Garfield was born in London in 1960.[2] He won the Guardian/NUS 'Student Journalist of the Year' award In 1981, and the same year he became a sub-editor at the Radio Times.[1] He wrote scripts for BBC radio documentaries in the early 1980s.[1] He also wrote for Time Out magazine, acting as editor from 1988 to 1989.[1] He has written for newspapers such as The Independent, the Independent on Sunday