About me

Gabriel was educated at Stonyhurst College which claims Arthur Conan Doyle as an alumnus, and where one of his teachers was Michael Tolkien, son of JRR Tolkien. Maybe his love of writing and suspense fiction was born in those formative years under the brooding presence of Pendle Hill. 

Following school and Bristol University, inspired by Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road,” Gabriel packed a rucksack and hitch-hiked his way across the USA. This was back in the days when willingly getting in a stranger’s car was not seen as deranged and when the instantaneous access to parental help or money via a mobile phone was not available. During those years in his early twenties Gabriel learned about life, about self-sufficiency, and about the innate generosity of strangers. Keeping him company on Route 66 however there was always an Agatha Christie or John Dickson-Carr to keep loneliness at bay. 

Gabriel decided after a couple of years back-packing that he’d reached a point where he needed a career and chose… acting. Having been accepted into Studio 69 drama school in London, lack of a grant to fund the training scuppered those hopes so more by luck than judgement he started a job as a consultant with a Recruitment company. To his amazement, he found he was pretty good at it and advanced quickly up the management ladder and within five years owned his own recruitment business. He has spent the last four decades earning a good living finding other people jobs. He learned that in business, particularly when he was running large businesses, the need to present an image, a version of himself held sway. Over time this version became the dominant force and the work mask became him. It was only as time itself became more precious that the other side, the alter ego, the side that was buried beneath the work mask, at last surfaced.

After a forty-year career in business spanning four continents and encountering countless imps, pimps and banjo players along the way, he now feels free to let his alter ego usurp the time remaining and remove the work mask. For Gabriel this alter ego is his love of words, of books, preferably thrillers. He also loves drama, art, the Rolling Stones and his native Yorkshire where he holds a passionate if wholly unrequited love of Leeds United football club. 

Having decided to write the book he’d felt was in him, he realised that he knew little to nothing of the technical skills required to write a compelling work of fiction. He had a plot line, yes. He had a good vocabulary but putting it all together would require help. He was selected to join Cornerstones Literary Agency’s scouting program, and was then mentored by acclaimed author Mark Leggatt to give the book a professional and commercial polish. Neil Broadfoot, a Mcllvanney nominated crime writer, copy edited the manuscript and then line edited to get it ready for publication.

In his own words...

'Although I started writing late in life, I feel like it's been all I have ever done.  Planning, writing, character development, plot development etc are a full time job for me now.  And that's not to mention editing!' Says Gabriel

'I read that every writer does things slightly differently, and I suppose I’m no exception. I’m more productive in the morning so I tend to be at my desk by 8ish and write till around lunchtime. In the afternoons, I edit the previous day’s efforts and use whatever time is left to prep the next day’s writing. I don’t set myself targets in terms of word count per day as I think that reaching the target becomes of greater importance than what is being written. Two thousand words of tripe is still…Tripe. Nor do I beat myself up if I get stuck. Writer’s block, or whatever term you wish to use, happens to all authors. 

I find the best way for me is to walk away. Take a day or two away from it and let my head clear. This leads to regaining clarity of thought and enables me to get back to my desk and be productive. As to the quality, how well one writes is subjective, but if it’s true that to become an expert in anything requires 10,000 hours of practice, then I’m on my way. Not that I’m claiming that my expertise will rival the great authors, but it is making me become the best writer I can be. 

If writing is time and brain-consuming then editing is its big nasty brother. Weirdly, however, I enjoy it. If I was to offer one tip to any author’s starting out it would be to find yourself the best editor you can afford. I was fortunate enough to find Mark Leggatt, who is not only a McIlvanney nominated author in his own right but is also an expert development and copy editor. 

Without Mark Leggatt’s mentoring skills, frankness to tell me what I was writing was “pish” and patient guidance when I was struggling, the book would never have happened. But now I’ve got the bug!