P is for Pet Shop Boys. One of the running jokes in Dead Man Singing is Dave and Cindy’s shared dislike of the synth duo. I hated their music back in the 80s, although I have warmed to them (a bit) since (maybe I’m mellowing). They still feel like a band who would have been a long way ou...

Football and music: two of my biggest passions in life, and the settings for my first two novels: Dead Man Singing centring on the music industry, and my follow up Foul and Fair (due to be published in July 2024), a tale of dirty tricks and moral dilemmas in the murky world of children’s grass...

O is for the Ozark Mountain Daredevils. One of my beta readers for Dead Man Singing described the musical references as deliberately obscure. Generally, that’s not true, but there’s one reference – the aforementioned Ozarks – which was purposefully chosen because I thought a ...

April 2023: I nervously went along to just a couple of events at the first ever Bournemouth Writing Festival. Dead Man Singing was due for publication a few months later and I wanted some ideas for how to promote it, as well as for future writing projects. Those two sessions were great, and after th...