Just a little about me
I’ve written two series of crime fiction, one featuring Inspector James Given, set in the late 1930s and early 1940s, and the Meg Valentine mysteries, set in 18th century Shropshire.
My love of crime fiction goes way back to childhood and adolescence. Whether it be the Famous Five’s criminal investigations, science fiction detectives on distant worlds, or Wilkie Collins’ immortal The Moonstone. I believe there’s something fundamental in crime fiction. The unravelling of a mystery, the search for truth, and the thrill of the hunt. All of my detective novels offer these in spades.
I’ve also written a family saga, A Handkerchief for Maria, a novel based on researches in to my own family.
In 2016, three of my short stories were included in a collection, Wild Atlantic Words, fifteen tales drawing from life on the west coast of Ireland.
I grew up in Manchester, in an area known as Tripe Colony due to its original connections to producers of that infamous and synonymously-northern cattle product. At eighteen I moved to Coventry, Warwickshire, where I underwent the common life steps of college, work, marriage and family.
From the mid-1970s, the writing phase of my life developed, firstly in the production of training manuals and videos, through reports and policy papers, until early-retirement and a move to Donegal, Ireland, took me into my first novel.
I now live near Ironbridge, Shropshire, the cradle of the Industrial Revolution. The series I’m working on at present draws its inspiration from this area.
When I’m not writing, I enjoy gardening, playing and listening to music, genealogy and, of course, reading crime fiction.
Some FAQs
Why a mystery and crime writer?
Because I believe there’s something fundamental to the human condition in them. Our need to solve puzzles. Our interest in the dilemmas faced by other people. Our enjoyment of the hunt. And our desire to understand what makes our friends and neighbours tick. Fiction gives us a safe place to explore these.
Why historical fiction?
Partly because I grew up in simpler times. In earlier days, policing and crime detection depended less on science and more on deductive reasoning. Nowadays, everyone is an expert in forensics: we all know what’s possible with mobile phone records, CCTV footage, and DNA – or at least we know what film and TV says is possible. As a result, I guess it’s harder to write believable modern crime fiction.
The other reason for my historical crime and mystery preferences is that my early reading was of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie. Sherlock Holmes and Poirot are complex and flawed characters, with razor-sharp reasoning who (almost) always get the villain. What’s not to like?
Why do I write?
I ask myself this almost every time I sit in front of a blank screen trying to pull words from my brain. Writing is a form of self-torture. On the one hand, you write a word, then another, and string them into a sentence. You might rewrite that sentence a few times, until you think it’s as good as you can get it.
A few more sentences and you have a paragraph. Which you might rewrite. Ten to fifteen paragraphs later you have a scene. Which you will rewrite. Several times.
Thirty to forty scenes later, you hit a brick wall. The phrase “this book is terrible” spins round and round in your head. If you’re persistent, and lucky, you’ll climb that wall. After that, it’s plain sailing to the end. But then it starts all over again, redrafting and redrafting.
Despite all of this, I write because it’s enjoyable. I think all creators must face the same duality between the pain and the excitement of the process.
Drop me a note here if you agree – or disagree.
Check out the new release – the second in the Meg Valentine Mysteries – here.
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