A Silent Death from 2020 is set in the contemporary Spain of crime, drugs gangs and introduced the world of a deaf blind character at the heart of a gripping plot to readers. I’ve been writing all my life and for the last 10 to 20 years, I’ve just been writing a book a year or more and travelling for promotion all over the world and it is exhausting. It was getting too much.” Joe was a veritable force of nature, who fought for all things natural. He was a kind, supremely generous man, with a great sense of humour, and an endless patience for this annoying writer. To whet your appetite here is a video with images from Luskentye and the coffin road, set to music by the Darkside Owls and their song “Gone but not Forgotten” which was inspired by the book ( available from itunes now).

The “Crime Thriller Club Best Read” award was the last one to be presented and to be honest my mind was focused on the moment when it would all be over and a) I could visit the toilets and b) I could get out of the tie and suit.In my scenario Glasgow Airport has been flooded so the international airport is out of use, and that was all great fun and I enjoyed looking at that.” When I got there the office was empty, except for bureau chief Mike Chinoy and an assistant provided by the Chinese government. But, of course, without power it was impossible to view the footage, and although I was able to sit and chat to Mike about the events of two years before, I always wondered if it was more than coincidence that prevented me from seeing that video. But the story doesn’t end there. Because 42 years later, Philip Ziegler is still going strong, and still being published himself. His latest book, “ Olivier”, is the definitive biography of the actor Lawrence Olivier, and is published by Quercus who also publish my best-selling Lewis Trilogy.

I knew that there had been some particularly brutal land clearances in the Hebrides, and since this was on my patch, so to speak, I decided to set the historical element of the story on the Isle of Lewis and Harris, creating a fictitious estate and township that would serve as a typical example of some of the more violent clearances. For this I drew specifically on real events that took place on Barra, the west coast of Harris, and the village of Solas in North Uist. For the album cover, Stephen and I tried to replicate a photograph that was taken of us in a photobooth in Euston Station during that fateful trip. We spent our last half crown on it (never dreaming then, that it would end up all over something called the internet nearly half a century later). It’s an interesting comparison. His column was not only ill-informed and hopelessly prejudiced, but it was deeply offensive to the many thousands of people who play the game at all levels, and nothing short of insulting to the Scots who comprise the men’s and women’s British Olympic curling teams and who sacrifice their time and their social lives, just like any other athletes, to perform the best they can for Britain. Don’t Burn The World is a song written by the author and his lyricist collaborator, Dennis McCoy, as a plea for the future of the planet in the face of catastrophic climate change. Much of the story is set in the West of Scotland, Kinlochleven, where in 2051 there is nuclear power. But Kinlochleven has an interesting past, as far as power innovations are concerned. Peter during research for an earlier title, Entry Island.

UK Launch Tour

Joe went on to advise me on further books in the China series, as well as in the Enzo Files series, and finally on “ Coffin Road”. The evening covered crime writing in the form of TV series and films, as well as books, and there were awards for productions and acting as well as writing so there were numerous awards. The wine was flowing, the hours were passing, no-one was allowed to leave as the event was being recorded for television. Cameron Brodie, a veteran Glasgow detective, volunteers to be flown north to investigate Younger’s death. However, evidence uncovered during his autopsy places the lives of both Brodie and pathologist, Roy, in extreme jeopardy. Cast Iron– the sixth and final book in the Enzo Files series – will be published in hard cover edition in North America on October 3rd. When I was 18 years old I made my first serious attempt to write a novel. I had written stories throughout most of my teenage years, including a teenage fantasy about the group I played in called “The Aristokrats”. The book was entitled “The Aristokrats in Spain”, and it ran to around 50,000 words. If nothing else, it taught me that I could write at length, but it could never have been described as serious.

Well, while awaiting the release of The Chess Men, the final book in The Lewis Trilogy – in September in France and next January in the UK, I was keeping my head down and getting to work on a new idea. However, if I thought I was going to have some quiet time to research and think, I was wrong. The last couple of weeks have been – well, see for yourself… Arriving during an ice storm, Brodie and pathologist Dr. Sita Roy, find themselves the sole guests at the inappropriately named International Hotel, where Younger’s body has been kept refrigerated in a cake cabinet. But evidence uncovered during his autopsy places the lives of both Brodie and Roy in extreme jeopardy. As I was one of the nominees, a limo arrived at our hotel to take us to the Grosvenor House Hotel where the dinner and awards ceremony was being televised. Red carpet and photographers greeted me and I was asked to stop and pose before we went through to the champagne reception and awards dinner. My sincere thanks to all of you who have supported my books over the years and who have contributed to the recent success of The Lewis Trilogy. The Isle of Harris was calling me. It was the perfect place. And what better opportunity would I have to realise my vision for that opening scene of the man staggering to his feet, drenched an confused, than in one of the most dramatic and beautiful locations in the world?

And during all my subsequent visits, right up until 2004, I bore witness to the transformation of a country, from the closed, almost mediaeval world of Mao Zedong, to the vision of modern China set in train by Deng Xioaping. Those changes are reflected in the six books of The China Thrillers, which span probably the greatest and fastest period of change in Chinese history. For inspiration in the construction of this character I turned to my two brothers-in-law. Both are startlingly intelligent, and although they have never met have both been hugely successful in the world of computer system analysis – one in England, one in America. I have one event in London and a short Scottish tour where I will talk about the book and sign copies. Maybe if bestselling Scottish thriller writer Peter May hadn’t started reading around climate change and its effects in the run-up to COP26, he would never have written his new book set in the future. The new book, Peter May's A Winter Grave is set in a world affected by climate change.