Having completed thirty-six years military service, Tom spent three fulfilling years in Afghanistan attempting to disarm warlords. This led him to set up his own company specialising in crisis management. In quieter moments, free from the remorseless tyranny of demanding deadlines, he once again picked up the pen.
Influenced by Cornwell, Clancy, Archer and Forsyth – and a devoted fan of Ian Rankin and James Grant writing as Lee Child – it was actually reading Frank Gardner’s Crisis and immediately thereafter, Ultimatum, which provided the inspiration to attempt his own book. Sharing a similar background to Gardner’s principal character – Luke Carlton – explains why he chooses to write under a pseudonym. Helpfully, having spent much of his professional life advising ministers, ambassadors and heads of foreign governments, colouring-in the storyline’s political backdrop proved to be fun and comparatively stress-free.
Quite deliberately, the book’s narrative only involves countries, cities and streets of which the Author has personal knowledge; the corridors, alleyways, cafes and exotic locations are all, or once were, familiar haunts. The exception, which he invented, is an open prison in the English county of Shropshire, near to home on the banks of his beloved River Severn.
