What a brilliant programme for this year's Darlington Arts Festival in May - looking forward to being part of it!…

Delighted to say that the DCI Blizzard mystery The Railway Man (The Book Folks), set in a world of veteran railway workers  and seedy boxing clubs, has reached 50 reviews on Amazon.

You can read them at…

Funny how ideas work their way into a writer’s consciousness. The idea for my recently-published DCI Jack Harris novel To Honour the Dead (The Book Folks) came, in part, from my father recounting a tale from his National Service days when a soldier won a medal for valour but was drunk at the time.

The story got me thinking about the thin line…

One of my Darlington Arts Festival events, taking place during National Crime Reading Month in May, will be a talk looking at the role of conflict as an inspiration for crime writers.

Conflict fascinates crime writers, regardless of where it happens, and one of the novels that gave me the idea for the talk, and to which I shall refer, was my…

The Crime Writers’ Association (CWA), of which I am a member, has created the role of Festival Liaison Officer, which is intended to strengthen connections between crime writers and literary and arts festivals. Authors Isabelle Grey and William Shaw will share the…

I do a lot of creative writing teaching and I always contend that, despite the many elements of fiction, it comes down to a triangle, three things that come together to make the story work right from the off - story, character and…

The DCI Harris crime novel Dead Hill (The Book Folks) is at 23 in the Amazon Kindle Crime Fiction chart - with some truly brilliant novels for company - you can check out the full list at…

I was recently interviewed for the Middlesbrough Council magazine Empower Middlesbrough (many thanks to my old friend Ian Cross for the opportunity). My responses may interest

Tell me your story about becoming an author. What inspired you?

I always wanted to tell stories and had written from a young age, banging…

Libraries across the country are being hit hard by government cuts to local authority budgets.…

Best-selling crime novelist and creative writing tutor John Dean, who is based in Dumfries and Galloway, is still running an…

Thinking of writing a crime novel? Then you need to consider that to write a good crime story, you need to:

* Create a strong story (even with a short story, it is worth mapping out a synopsis because crime stories are often complicated and you need to get it right).…

The McIlvanney Prize is launching a new award for 2019…

Delighted that four of my novels, including Death List, are in the best-seller Organised Crime Amazon Kindle charts - check out the full list at …

Best-selling crime novelist John Dean is returning to Darlington to stage a couple of events as part of the literary line-up during Darlington Arts Festival in May.

John, the former chair of Festival organisers Darlington for Culture, left the town after 26 years at the end of 2017 to live in South West Scotland.

The author of 17…

Looking forward to being part of the Darlington Arts Festival line-up in May!

The literary events line-up has now been announced. Details at:…

As you may know from my previous blogs, I am putting the final touches to the latest DCI Jack Harris novel. I am analysing each line to make sure that every word is doing a job and much of that process is focusing on dialogue.

I talk to many writers who say: ‘I can write but I…

The DCI Jack Harris crime novel Dead Hill (Book Folks) is up to 57 reviews on Amazon now - you can see what the readers thought of it at…

As the Crime Writers’ Association Libraries Champion in Scotland, I often find myself reminding people that libraries are about so much more than books. And one of the most important elements of the…

Writers! Fancy writing in a house on a hill? Looking to learn more about how writers draw inspiration from their surroundings? Like to find a peaceful corner of a garden to write? And all with home-cooked meals?  

Then a weekend course near Castle Douglas in Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland is for you or your writing…