News

Holiday break
Posted on September 4, 2025
I started the week with a wonderful day at the WRITE Festival in South Shields Library. What a great venue! I joined an author panel with Helen Aitchison, CJ Grayson …
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Q&A in Chemical Processing
Posted on August 11, 2025
I had a lovely chat with Traci Purdum which was published this week. 5 Quick Questions Aug. 11, 2025 Engineering professor discovers joy in teaching, hypothetically tackles Bhopal cleanup and …
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Harrogate
Posted on July 18, 2025
Greetings from Harrogate, UK where crime readers and writers from all over the world gather once a year for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival: some of the nicest …
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Getting my rights back
Posted on June 26, 2025
This week, Oneworld signed an agreement to return my publishing rights to me. It’s a major milestone in my writing journey, but also bittersweet. In 2017, I signed with my …
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It’s easy to point out what’s wrong – it takes ingenuity to fix it
Posted on June 3, 2025
I was interviewed by Hannah Dolman at the University of Cambridge for the Alumni Magazine of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology. You can read the full text (with …
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Terry Deary
Posted on May 18, 2025
I’m so excited to have been invited to interview Terry Deary (of Horrible Histories fame) when he visits Back of Beyond Books. If you’ll be anywhere near Sedgefield on 24th …
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Interview in E&T
Posted on May 18, 2025
I was delighted to be interviewed by fellow author Nick Smith in Behalf of the Engineering and Technology Magazine E&T. We talk about pen names, the world of work, tools …
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Phosphate Rocks – do engineers read fiction?
Posted on May 1, 2025
May 2025 sees the start of a 52-part serialisation of my 3rd novel – Phosphate Rocks: A Death in Ten Objects. The Chemical Engineer, (TCE), the monthly magazine of the …
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Audiobook Loosing Control
Posted on May 1, 2025
I’ve been listening to the audiobook of Losing Control and I’m absolutely delighted with what voice actors Melanie Crawley and Mike Hayley have done with the story – they bring it …
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Visiting Cambridge University 6&7 May 2025
Posted on April 23, 2025
I’m delighted to be visiting my old university to give a couple of talks in early May, always a lovely time to be in Cambridge The first talk is as …
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Phosphate Rocks to be serialised
Posted on March 24, 2025
Exciting news. The Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) have acquired the rights to serialise my novel about a fertiliser factory in their member magazine (TCE) and website. Phosphate Rocks: A Death …
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Authors on Location and Mysteries to Die For
Posted on February 6, 2025
This week, The Book Trail – now celebrating ten years of mapping the locations in works of fiction, a sort of literary travel agency – ran a #Authors on Location …
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