A Life of Crime

In conversation with author Mike Ripley, over a glass of wine. Mike Ripley wrote his first novel
on the train whilst commuting between Colchester and London. He has written a further 31 novels, two works of non-fiction and a collection of short stories, was a scriptwriter for the BBC series Lovejoy and edited two volumes of stories from the cult television series Callan.

Mike won the Last Laugh Award for comedy crime writing three times, the Angel Award for East Anglian writers, a Sherlock Award and the H.R.F. Keating Award for non-fiction, for his history of British thrillers. He has appeared on stage for live audiences with, among others: Colin Dexter, Minette Walters, Stella Rimington, Sir Ian Rankin and Lee Child. As editor, he re-published more than a hundred crime novels and thrillers which had gone out of print for Colchester publisher Ostara, and developed a creative crime-writing course for the adult education department of Cambridge University. From 1989 to 2000 he was the crime fiction critic for the Daily Telegraph and from 2000 to 2008 for the Birmingham Post. He has also written on crime fiction for The Observer, The Times
and The Guardian and for Radio 4.