The Guardian’s Best summer books 2018, as picked by writers
I had absolutely no idea at first that Fatal Evidence appeared in the Guardian’s Best summer books, as picked by writers. I noticed I had a new follower o...
Category: Writing
A trip to Edinburgh
I’d wanted to go on holiday to Edinburgh for ages, and was rather pleased that I could combine it with the writing of my book, Fatal Evidence. But what do...
A reading from Fatal Evidence
Alfred Swaine Taylor and the arsenic in the wallpaper
When “used” is “new”
My second book was published on Monday. The copies arrived with my publisher on the Friday before. So imagine my surprise when, only a couple of days later, two...
Real-life ecclesiastical sleuths: Reverend Cancellor & The Eastbourne Manslaughter
At depth of night, this thought on home had shone; ‘Our distant child draws safe his sleeping breath.’ E’en then the cherish’d boy, th’ expected son, Was dying ...
Who was R O Gilmore?
Among the many adventures I had writing Alfred Swaine Taylor‘s biography, I decided to track down the previous owner of a book. I work at a well-stocked l...
Real-life ecclesiastical sleuths: Reverend Wilkins & The Tragedy at Wix
Ecclesiastical sleuths are not unknown to crime fiction and drama – there’s Father Dowling, there’s G K Chesterton’s Father Brown, and J...
Ask Augustus
It’s not long now until my second book is published. Fatal Evidence is the first book-length biography of 19th-century forensic scientist Professor Alfred...
A writer wrote a thing
It’s hard to know sometimes (often, perhaps) if online articles are sincere or if they’ve been skewed for clickbait. That’s what I thought whe...
CWA conference – Edinburgh, April 2017
I need very little excuse to go to Edinburgh. I love it. I love it because it’s got loads of old stuff, it reminds me a bit of Granada (the old town with ...