Uuganaa Ramsay was born in Mongolia and grew up in a yurt, living a nomadic life eating marmot meat and distilling vodka from yoghurt. After winning a place on a teacher-training course she came to the UK, and now lives in Scotland.

She wrote Mongol with the help of the Janetta Bowie Chalice Non-Fiction Book Award from the Scottish Association of Writers. Following Mongol's publication, Uuganaa made BBC Radio 4 documentary 'The Meaning of Mongol.'