Dear Reader,
People ask me why I write. Usually my wife when I'm late for dinner.
The truth is, I’ve always written, but when I was a kid I didn’t think
of it as “writing”. I thought of it as having fun.
I wrote stories on the back of invoices my grandmother used in her
dressmaking shop. I wrote plays, which I staged with cardboard cutouts.
I wrote home movies which I shot with my friends at school.
Later, I wrote and directed films of all kinds for a living, and directed
for the stage. But whether documentary, video, theatre or cinema, they
all contained stories about people who are trying to make sense of the
world we live in — sometimes serious, sometimes satirical, sometimes
suspenseful.
More recently, I began writing novels. That's the current reason I'm
often late for dinner.
I write crime thrillers, of different sub-genres: satirical,
psychological, darkly comic, dark conspiracy.
I go undercover to research them. I’ve secretly found my way into
tabloid newsrooms, local government offices, police stations and even
a police cell.
For the books I’m currently writing, I’ve worked covertly with SAS
veterans, journalists researching high-profile assassinations and
charity workers dealing with international corruption.
I go to great lengths to get the right details, to the point of training
as a hypnotherapist and falling off a mountain in the Caribbean.
Now I’m a bestselling author, award-winning writer-director and
journalist. Semi-finalist: Author Nation Story Wars 2024. Director
of the Society of Authors.
I’m also a passionate Green. I’d love to help save the human race,
if it actually wants to be saved — which I sometimes doubt.
I have a wife, who lives with me in London, and two sons, who don’t.
One is also a novelist. The other has a sensible job.
And, in case of problems with editors, I’m a 6th Dan black-belt in Aikido.
Join my mailing list for articles on crime and reviews of books and
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