Biography

I was the best tree-climber in Humberston County Junior School. It was official. My friends and I wrote to the teachers to prove it. Humberston was a village on the outskirts of Grimsby and Cleethorpes (it’s now little more than a suburb) and because there were lots of trees I had no time for books. I read comics instead.

Neither of my parents were readers; the only books in the house when I was growing up were my older brother’s. My father was a BT engineer, my mother a housewife. My brother beat me up on a regular basis. (He now works providing sport psychology support for footballers and other athletes  - and I've got to admit I haven't a clue what it means, but worry that the theme of physical torture may still linger).

I’d figured out by the age of ten that tree-climbing wasn’t a viable career – no matter how good you were at it - so had decided I wanted to be a magician. My dad’s hobby has always been woodwork/carpentry and he made me mirror-boxes that could disappear the pet rabbit and reappear a coconut. (He would later make me the desk where I sit down to work every day.) My mum made me a cloak and hat. I said the hat looked silly because I didn’t like glitter, but she made me wear it anyway. The last day of term at Humberston County Juniors was always punctuated with me performing in front of the whole school in the assembly hall.

The only famous magician in those days was Paul Daniels, and he was very uncool, (if only I’d had David Blaine or Derren Brown as a role model!) so when I moved to Lindsey Comprehensive in Cleethorpes I gave up the magic to become an actor. I was subsequently terrible in several school productions.

At Lindsey I met Steve who said he was the best tree-climber in Cleethorpes. It was a lie, but we became firm friends anyway. Almost accidentally I read Robert Westall’s The Machine Gunners. It was the first ‘proper’ book I’d ever read, but it was this book that turned me on to fiction, and almost instantly made me want to become a writer.

By the age of 14 I was writing a lot of stories at home. I was a big Stephen King fan and wrote mainly horror. I wrote stories for my friends’ English homework and charged them depending on the grade received - £2 for an A, £1.50 for a B, £1 for a C.

In the sixth-form I was writing more than studying. I wrote two longer stories which I printed up myself to look as much like books as possible, got Steve to draw front covers, then sold them around the school. I was so busy writing I messed up my A-levels. I stayed an extra year at sixth-form to retake, and messed up again.

At this point I didn’t mind if I was a writer or a rock star. I played bass guitar in a local band, and our only claim to fame was supporting a once chart-topping band called Deacon Blue at the Radio One roadshow on Cleethorpes Boating Lake paddock. The band’s lead singer has since gone on to become a TV producer and a voice in the diary room on Big Brother. Steve was the lead guitarist; he started up his own light-haulage firm. The drummer was arrested for burglary.

I had wanted to do a Literature degree, but missed the grades needed by a mile. To this day my highest qualification is a D in A-level English. Instead of going away to study Literature and become a teacher like my parents wanted me to, I stayed in Grimsby and studied for a Business and Finance HND at Humberside Poly, Grimsby College campus. I hated the course. I wrote short stories during my lectures and subsequently received 0% in my Accounting exam at the end of the first year, so was asked to leave.

I decided I was going to do everything I could to get a book published, but first I needed a job to pay the rent. Steve came to the rescue and employed me as a truck driver for his light-haulage firm. We were contracted to B&Q, delivering lawnmowers and paving slabs and big bags of fertilizer. We worked together and often talked about the stories I was writing at the time, and Steve usually came up with a few good ideas for me to use. He still does, which is why he’s frequently acknowledged in my books.   (And as far as the lifelong tree-climbing competition is concerned, I’m still winning!)

My first book was a clichéd horror novel, The Seven Keys, an awful Clive Barker rip-off that has never seen the light of day. I then reread The Machine Gunners, stole the idea and the style, and wrote "Six Bullets" about two boys who find a revolver. It managed to find me an agent.

"Six Bullets" went to several publishers, but was rejected by each and every one. I worked at Pizza Hut and ate as many free pizzas as I could manage (my favourite topping has always been pepperoni and pineapple). I was disappointed by the growing pile of rejection slips but refused to give up. I wrote a third novel: Creepers. It was picked up by Mammoth Children’s Books (later to become Egmont) and was published in 1996 when I was 24. It was shortlisted for the Guardian Award.

From Blood: Two Brothers, Hunting The Cat and “Six Bullets” rewritten and renamed Dead Trouble all followed in 1997. The Runner and Happy were published in ’98.

During this time I worked as a gardener, in a Virgin Megastore, and even dressed up as a massive teddy bear called Billy-Bob for one hot, sweaty, humiliating summer at Pleasure Island Theme Park in Cleethorpes. The biggest surprise was being invited back to Humberside Poly, now the University of Lincolnshire and Humberside, to lecture in Creative Writing to HND Media Studies students.

I also spent some time travelling.  I've been lost up a mountain in Poland, skinny-dipping in Croatia, fishing for piranha in Venezuela, snorkelling in the Caribbean, clubbing in Andorra, bungee jumping in Las Vegas and have camped in the grounds of a Spanish monastery.  But I still haven’t seen even half as much of the world as I’d like, and a new ambition is to do some travel writing one day.

I lectured for two years and then moved to Edinburgh in the summer of 2000 so I could become a full-time writer. £10,000 (2001) was my last book for Mammoth.

In Edinburgh I met a beautiful Viennese photography student called Jasmine, who wants to travel with her camera. We're hoping to travel together. I can write about the photos she takes, and we already have a book planned.  For now we live in a small flat that's half full of camera equipment and half full of books, with a tiny space in the middle where we meet for tea.

Since being here I've written Warehouse (2002) and Malarkey (2003) for Random House Children's Books, and they've undoubtedly been my most successful books so far.  Hopefully you'll all enjoy The Fearful just as much when it hits the shelves in 2005.