The Story So Far
I grew up in the Fen country of East Anglia. I went to school in Ely and Woodbridge, and to university at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and University College London. You can find glimpses these early days here. When I was a useful member of society, I worked as a boatbuilder, wages clerk, teacher, librarian, labourer and freelance publisher's editor. Since 1981, I have been a full-time writer and, since 1982, I have lived in the Forest of Dean on the borders of England and Wales.
I write mainly crime novels and historical novels. You can find out more about them here. My wife works with me on the books. Because of RSI, I dictate, which often involves me prancing up and down my workroom and talking to myself in silly voices. In fine weather, I sit under an apple tree and talk to myself in the fresh air instead.
I was brought up to believe that boasting is vulgar, which it is. But legitimate commercial self-advertisement is of course completely different - and indeed a moral imperative if one is to survive in the harsh climate of twenty-first-century literature. Click Awards and Reviews for - well, awards and reviews and so on.
All writers have a tendency to feel that they are working in a vacuum, and that our readers are really figments of our overheated imaginations. This is why I find it particularly reassuring that Public Lending Right estimates put my British public library readership in the top one per cent.
From 2004 to 2006, I edited The Author, the quarterly journal of the Society of Authors, and I continue to write The Author's regular 'Grub Street' column. I am the Spectator's crime fiction reviewer and also contribute reviews and features to the Independent and elsewhere. You can see my Spectator reviews here.
Most of my typescripts, proofs and other working materials are held in the Special Collections of the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center of Boston University.