The Radgepacket Sessions
Tom
lives in Chester with his four year old sonwho thinks he’s a T-Rex, a one year old bundle of mischief and his lovely Irish wife Sarah (she paid him to say that!) He works as a SAP Guru for a big oil company and every now and again when he’s stuck on a rig or an oil tanker in a force nine gale he wonders if he might just prefer to be at home writing instead. In his spare time he mainly visits the zoo and changes nappies and in the remaining three seconds left after the boys go to bed he writes (recently completing his fourth novel - a post apocalyptic comedy, death, zombie fest!) His novel 'Dumb Luck' was published by Byker Books last year to great critical acclaim so while he works on a follow up we thought we'd bother the life out him for a chat...like you do!
Nigel is a cult blogger and author supreme. He is also a Support For Learning teacher in a primary school near Edinburgh. Co-Producer of the Rue Bella magazine between 1998 and 2003, he has recently had work published by ‘The Reader’ and ‘Crimespree’ and was interviewed by Spinetingler for their ‘Conversations With The Bookless’ series earlier this year. Other stories have been available in numerous online outlets and, most importantly, he has had two E-books of short stories published ('Dirty Old Town' and 'Beat on the Brat) which are going like hot cakes man!
Dan Wagstaffe is an ex York City junior who turned to writing after the whole football thing didn't work out. He's written a novel (Honey Rich) and also written and produced his own short film - impressive- eh? What we want to know is how does he feel about Dancing on Ice and what he drinks...read on to find out.
Andy Rivers is the author of
Maxwell's Silver Hammer an edgy, contemporary, crime fiction novel
and
I'm Rivelino a hilarious look at his life following Newcastle United (both published by your favourite bunch of Byker outlaws) an achievement which suprises him every time he remembers he's done it. In his time he has been
a Butlins barman, pretend chippie on a Spanish construction site, coach holiday rep, mobile sandwich salesman and outdoor traffic cone washer to name but a few of his eclectic 'career' choices. Originally from the East End of Newcastle he now lives in Oxfordshire where, as well as following Newcastle United around the country, he passes the time by indulging in his passion for ‘Professional Geordie-ism’ and lager. With the royalties from this book he plans on buying a Ferrari and having a proper mid-life crisis.
Allan Guthrie writes dark (and sometimes comic) crime fiction. He was born in Orkney, but has lived in Edinburgh for most of his adult life. He is married to Donna. His first novel,
'Two-Way Split', was shortlisted for the CWA Debut Dagger and went on to win the 2007 Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel Of The Year. He is also the author of the novels
'Hard Man' winner of the inaugural Spinetingler award for Best Novel — New Voice, and
'Savage Night', plus the novellas,
'Kill Clock' (for emergent adult readers) and
Killing Mum. His latest novel is
Slammer.
Ray Banks shares his birthday with Curtis Mayfield and Chuck Barris and was born in Kirkcaldy, Fife, on the same day that Roberto Rossellini kicked the bucket, and four days before The Sex Pistols went on that jaunt up the Thames. He has worked as a wedding singer, double-glazing salesman, croupier, dole monkey, and various degrees of disgruntled temp.
He currently lives in Newcastle Upon Tyne with his perfect wife and a fat, black cat named after a dead country singer, where he’s been known to fall into fits of curmudgeonly behaviour that usually involve the word “fuck”.
Nick's first novel 'Broken Dreams' is about to be released by Caffeine Nights Publishing whilst he works on several others that will no doubt see him elevated to a status that will see him telling us to bugger off before long - so we're getting in now! He lives in, and worries about, the fortunes of Hull.
An independent researcher and writer best known for her commentaries on feminism and popular culture, Elizabeth Wilson is currently Visiting Professor at the London College of Fashion. She is the author of several non-fiction books. Her latest novel War Damage has just been published by Serpent’s Tail.
Far, far too clever to be talking to us...
Richard Milward was born in Middlesbrough in 1984. His debut novel, Apples, was published in 2007, and he recently passed his degree in Fine Art from Byam Shaw at Central St Martins in London. He currently lives in Middlesbrough.
That'll teach him!
Christopher Brookmyre is the author of twelve published novels to date, the latest being ‘A Snowball’s chance in hell’. He won the seventh Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction with ‘All fun and games until somebody loses an eye’ and, as is tradition, a Gloucestershire Old Spot pig was named after the winning novel.
Lucky he never called the book ‘Bacon Sandwich’ really…
Camilla, in a bit of change from our normal modus operandi, is not a writer. She is in fact a literary agent (and a very nice one at that) with top agency Darley Anderson. We thought it would be good to get the views of someone who has to find a way around the eccentricities and quibbles of both readers and writers so we turned to her and she didn't let us down. Having said that she does have a thing about Titanic...hmmm.
Charlie Williams wrote the books DEADFOLK, FAGS AND LAGER and KING OF THE ROAD. He lives in the Worcester area with his wife and two kids. He went to Swansea Uni, where he didn't do very well, and Kent Uni where he tried slightly harder. Thank God for second chances. His favourite authors are Jim Thompson, Charles Willeford, Magnus Mills and Thomas Hardy. He draws inspiration from the Malvern Hills, the behaviour of cats, the behaviour of drunk people and boxing (watching, not doing). He is distantly related to Laurie Lee, the late author of CIDER WITH ROSIE among other titles. (Not that this means much, but it could be pointed out that they both have alcoholic beverages in their titles.) As well as novels he writes short stories, screenplays and comics.
Max Kinnings is the author of two previous works, namely ‘Hitman’ and ‘The Fixer’. He is currently working on a new novel entitled ‘Baptism’ - a thriller about a terrorist hi-jack on the London Underground – as well as co-writing the film 'Act of Grace' which has it's world premiere at the NFT next month.
Danny King
Danny King was born in Slough in 1969. He is the author of seven comic crime novels, the first being The Burglar Diaries and the latest being School for Scumbags, as well as the BBC sitcom, Thieves Like Us, which was based on his first novel. A former hod carrier, porn mag editor and burglar, he often writes about what he knows and occasionally even spells some of it correctly. He lives in north London with his wife, Jeannie, and his new son, Charlie. He only likes KP Dry Roasted peanuts. No others.
