Crime Author
About Dave
I grew up in West London. My mum was a lover of stories and reading and succeeded in passing her enthusiasm on to me before I even started primary school. I quickly discovered that the 'compositions' our teachers asked us to write were an excuse to make up my own stories, and I never looked back. I've been scribbling pretty much for my whole life.
After school, I joined the civil service. In the early years of my career, I variously moonlighted as a bookmaker's clerk and a nightclub bouncer, and also got married and moved out of London, but I also continued writing. My first publication was a letter to the Economist. In the ensuing years, I would write for newspapers and magazines, get prizes and publication with my short fiction, and write quite a bit of material for the amateur stage. Along the way, I gained a First Class Honours degree from the Open University.
I now live in Buckinghamshire, with my wife, Chris. Early retirement gave me more time to write, and my first two published novels, the hybrid 'crime fantasies' featuring Personal Inquistitor Lowmar Dashiel, were published soon afterwards. Since then, I have written contemporary crime police procedurals: seven titles in the Archer and Baines series, set in Buckinghamshire's Aylesbury Vale, and two to date in the Hertfordshire-based DI Nathan Quarrel series. My latest title is Archer and Baines Book 7, Price to Pay.
I love appearing at festivals and other author events and meeting readers. In 2013, I co-founded the BeaconLit book festival, which takes place annually in Ivinghoe, Buckinghamshire and raises precious funds for Beacon Villages Community Library. I'm also a proud member of the Crime Writers Association, the Alliance of Independent Authors and Chiltern Writers.
In my spare time, I love travel and the theatre, torture myself watching my beloved Queens Park Rangers, and enjoy walking in the beautiful Chilterns.