Phil McGowan was born and raised in Rochdale. He graduated from University College London in 2007 and joined the Rugby Football Union later that year. He supplied the introduction to Dai Llewellyn's A Century of Twickenham Legends in 2011 before authoring Twickenham: Home of England Rugby in 2014 and One of Us: England's Greatest Rugby Players in 2015. In addition he has implemented an award winning education programme and series of special exhibitions for the World Rugby Museum.