'We're going to be tearing across the country in a blaze of activity and energy, kicking up a stink and making noise wherever we go. Most authors like to tuck themselves away in their garret. That doesn't work in the 21st century. We're hitting the road like the most unsavoury rock band – only our grammar will be a hundred times better.

Mark comes from a long line of Midlands coalminers, but after gaining an honours degree in History, he broke with family tradition to become a national newspaper and magazine journalist. When his work took him to life-threatening situations in the Arctic Circle and the criminal underworld, his relatives could only say, ‘Told you so – should’ve stayed down t’pit.’

After winning Fear magazine’s Best New Author award for his first short story in 1991, he landed a publishing deal which saw his debut novel, a supernatural thriller, launch a year later. Since then, he has worked firmly in the field of contemporary fantasy, with several strange tales about our modern world forced to deal with magic and gods. A winner of the prestigious British Fantasy Award, Chadbourn now has eleven novels and one non-fiction book under his belt. He is also a drama screenwriter for BBC television.

You can find Mark's own website at www.markchadbourn.net

Mark is published by Gollancz in the UK