D is for Del Amitri, one of the great under-rated bands of the late 80s/early 90s. You can find their music all over Dead Man Singing: it’s there in one of Dave and Cindy’s first meetings and the group crop up sporadically throughout the book, culminating with an account of one of their ...

‘He strode onto the tiny stage in the poky, smoky barn of a room, met with a smattering of applause rather than full-throated cheers.’

Dave Masters’ experience at the very beginning of chapter 1 of Dead Man Singing was strangely similar, yet hugely different to mine on Sunday 1^st O...

C is for Cover versions. Early on in writing Dead Man Singing I decided that my main character, Dave Masters, would include cover versions on his records and in his live set, alongside his self-written material. That was partly self-indulgence and partly for the benefit of a certain type of reader. ...

People talk about books being like babies, and I suppose I can see the parallels. I have stayed up all night with a book before now, though I’ve never had one throw up down my back as I was winding it. The email from the Book Guild offering to publish Dead Man Singing arrived in my inbox on Fr...