My family came to England in 1492, refugees from the Spanish Inquisition, and remained in the East End of London for the next 450 years. London is in my blood and as will be seen from my current series of novels, is an important character in its own right. I practiced as a barrister (trial attorney)for 35+ years, doing all sorts of criminal cases, including murder, which now form the plots of my books. I include actual court documents not usually seen by the public. I was published in the UK and the US in the late 1980s and early 1990, but my books were dropped in the middle of a 2-book deal when Virgin Books bought out WH Allen and I stopped writing for public consumption for 25 years. I still wrote – as I think all authors have to, to keep sane – but then in 2016 I decided to give up the day job and have another go at doing professionally the thing I loved most. I was picked up almost immediately by Urbane Publications and my former agent, Lisa Eveleigh, and the first two books of the Charles Holborne series have now been published, with the third due out 8 June 2017. I have three children (theatre director, actor and school student respectively). I was one of the founder members and last year the co-chairman of the Ampthill Literary Festival.