My new book

My new novel, Five Deadly Words, has just been published. This is the eleventh to get into print. The first, The Money Tree, was the easiest. I sent the ms off to Hamish Hamilton and three weeks later I had a letter inviting me to call in. I came away with an advance of £100, quite a respectable sum in those days. Getting published was easy, I decided. Silly me. These days mainstream publishers would rather receive a tax demand in the post than a ms from an author. Fortunately there is growing number of smaller publishers who retain the personal link with their writers. My publisher is Solidus, run by a clever woman called Helen Miles who uses new developments in printing to keep costs down. Five Deadly Words is sold though Amazon, the world's biggest bookshop, which thoughtfully also stocks almost every one of my previous books. More on this later.