Roofworld

Your first novel sticks to you forever. I thought I’d go to my grave being described as ‘The author of ‘Roofworld’. In fact, it was the fourth book I wrote but the first that came with expectations and a decent publicity budget. The book was about gangs on rooftops, but if I was rewriting it […]

I’ve had many enquiries from American friends asking if my backlist of around twenty books would become available there for Kindle, Kobo, etc. The volumes are being released in sets in the UK and Europe at the moment, with The Curse of Snakes and Calabash due in about three weeks. I’ve now signed a deal for […]

‘The lightness of the author’s touch conceals an underlying narrative of alienation,’ fellow author Joanne Harris says about me, adding, ‘perhaps this is why, in spite of having won countless genre awards, he has never received the mainstream acclaim he so deserves. Perhaps it is the sheer scope and variety of his output that continue […]

On May 12th, the first of my redesigned and reformatted novels make an appearance on as e-books for the low price of £2.99. ‘Roofworld’ and ‘Spanky’ were both big hits for me, but have been out of print for years. There will be twenty volumes in all, including novels and short story collections, featuring new […]

When it came to putting out e-versions of my back catalogue, I decided to take a similar approach to the Bryant & May Christmas annual of short stories, ‘London’s Glory’. Instead of merely sticking some tales in a book I added explanations and essays. So rather than simply transcribing the various novels and collections into […]

Due to a slight miscommunication with my publisher it seems that the mass market edition of ‘Bryant & May and the Burning Man’ is appearing on February 25th, just before the hardback arrival of ‘Bryant & May: Strange Tide’, the detectives’ mystery concerning strange deaths on the Thames, and the novel which will solve the […]

The old rule of thumb is that you should have your females talking about something other than men. I’ve never had a problem with this; if anything, it’s been hard to make them talk about men at all. I enjoy writing strong women. Many of the main characters in my books have been like June […]

  (In the opening chapter of my first novel, a boy falls from the Coca-Cola sign in Piccadilly Circus) For a moment, his form was imprinted in the flickering neon strips that made up the vast sign. Then, silhouetted against the bursting light, his body pulled away from the wall as the tubes exploded and […]

I thought I’d start an occasional column on this particular career choice, as there are some things I’m always asked or told. Here’s something to bear in mind; your first splash sticks to you forever. I’ll go to my grave being described as ‘the author of ‘Roofworld’. In fact, it was the fourth book I […]

1. In the cinema commercial we shot for my novel ‘Roofworld’, the neon set we used came from the National Theatre’s production of ‘Guys and Dolls’ because it had just finished its run and was going cheap. 2. In my collection ‘Demonized’, the story called ‘The Green Man’ is mostly true. It was written after […]