I completed my first novel, The Blaggard, between 2002 and 2004 while following the MA Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University. It is an incredibly funny and spontaneously thrilling story based on three continents and at least one ex-girlfriend. I received a distinction on completion of the course/novel, got plenty of interest from agents, and won the Dawson Jackson prize for full-time novelists. Around the same time I was long-listed for a Radio 4 award for my play based on non-professional footballing in Manchester, Amateurs. This rich vein of form and relative success convinced me to quickly backtrack and rejoin office life.

I'm now writing my second novel - another comedy/thriller with more than its fair share of doomed romance. It's set in the world of ELT (English Language Teaching) and is full of randy young teachers, idealistic students and dodgy schools trying to exploit both to aid their people-smuggling operations. After 20,000 words I find myself with a host of vivid, often unsettling characters - there's more to come, plus a thunderously political ending that will have you imagining I've at last found some depth. I need to fly to Kazakhstan to carry out some more research, if anyone fancies funding that?  In the meantime, feel free to download the first chapter.

By the way, the fantastic covers you see on this page were designed by my partner-in-crime Richard Heap. He also took the author shot on the homepage. Other photos around the site are my own.