I was encouraged to write at a young age by the late and extraordinarily great Sir Terry Pratchett. I started writing and submitting stories to publishers in 1992 (just before my thirteenth birthday) and made my first professional appearance alongside Terry - and Tom Sharpe, among others - in the international anthology Knights of Madness (edited by Peter Haining and published by Souvenir Press/Orbit Books in the UK and Ace/Penguin in the USA).

Following the success of the anthology, I was then fortunate enough to be taken on as a client by Ed Victor Ltd, the agents of another literary hero, Douglas Adams. My agent at the company, Sophie Hicks, then sold my work around the world in a series of fairly spectacular deals (some of which are described in the Sunday Times article ‘The Geek Gets Even’).

I’ve written more than thirty books for some of the biggest publishers in the world, including Disney and Penguin in the USA, Hodder and BBC Worldwide in the UK and Sony in Japan. I was born and raised in Ramsgate, England, where I still live with my family. I now write entirely for myself, either publishing books and short stories under my own imprint (Kingsbrook) or submitting to magazines and competitions around the world. I also blog.

FACT BOX

Unusual Activities: Master Freemason, occasional ghost-hunter, solo board gamer, amateur stage/independent film actor.

Favourite Authors: Steve Jackson, Ian Livingstone, Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, Rob Grant, Doug Naylor, Iain M. Banks, Clive Barker, Neil Gaiman, Michael Marshall Smith, Graeme Davis, Danny Wallace, Jon Ronson.

Favourite TV Shows: Lost, The Affair, Game of Thrones, Battlestar Galactica, Knightmare, Sirens, Red Dwarf, Fawlty Towers, Blackadder, Midsomer Murders.

Favourite Computer Games: Kathy Rain, The Secret of Monkey Island, Thimbleweed Park, Eye of the Beholder 2, Day of the Tentacle, The Legend of Grimrock, LA Noire, Skyrim, Oblivion, Fallout 76 (Fasnacht guy, fishing guy).

Favourite Board/Card/Social Games: Secret Hitler, Blood on the Clocktower, Horrified: Classic and D&D (Solo), Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu (Solo), Onerim (Solo), The Game (Solo), Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Dungeons & Dragons, Call of Cthulhu.

Favourite Books: Red Dwarf (Grant Naylor), The Thief of Always (Clive Barker) Better Than Life (Grant Naylor), The Warlock of Firetop Mountain (Steve Jackson/Ian Livingstone), House of Hell (Steve Jackson), Trial of Champions (Ian Livingstone), Midnight Rogue (Graeme Davis), Lords and Ladies (Terry Pratchett), The Colour of Magic (Terry Pratchett), Eric (Terry Pratchett), Witches Abroad (Terry Pratchett), The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams), Mostly Harmless (Douglas Adams), Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency (Douglas Adams), Backwards (Rob Grant), Last Human (Doug Naylor), Friends Like These (Danny Wallace), So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed (Jon Ronson), The Psychopath Test (Jon Ronson).