I’m back from a very subdued London Book Fair caused by the lack of overseas visitors because of the volcanic ash crisis and Europe wide flight ban and one that I doubt anyone who was exhibiting or intending to exhibit will forget. Empty stands and empty aisles were very much in evidence and the International Rights Centre was like a ghost town.…

It seems that the unprecedented closure of airspace across Britain and large parts of Northern Europe is set to continue into the weekend, after the volcanic eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland has sent a massive plume of ash into the atmosphere. So overseas visitors to the London Book Fair might be rather thin on the ground this year. My agents in Singapore and in Turkey have both had to cancel appointments with me because they can't get here. It's a great…

Getting the right name for characters in a novel can be a tricky business. Sometimes they come to me completely out of the blue as I am creating a character, other times I will struggle to find the name that best suits the character.



I have always had this thing that people should look like their names. When someone is introduced to me I will think yes, you are a Jacqueline or a Malcolm. Other times I will think, oh no, you're definitely a Karen or a Wayne. And so it…

I’ve finished reading the entries for the Young Crime Writers’ Competition organised by the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) of Great Britain, (of which I am a member).

I am one of the judges for the Southern Area Awards to find the South’s best young crime writer who will go forward for a national prize to be announced during National Crime Fiction Week, June 14-20.

The competition was aimed at writers aged up to 18 and stories were submitted via participating…

April is here and that means one of the major events in the book trade calendar, The London Book Fair, where I will be on 19th and 20th April. It's a great opportunity for me to meet with my overseas Literary Agents from Brazil, Spain and Italy as well as with my publishers of my business books and my crime novels.

According to an article on the Bookseller web…