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About This Author

Other countries, other times can be both less well understood and much more interesting than the here and now. At least, that's what I find, and that's the reason why my novels have been set in France or Germany, and in previous centuries. The Second Empire in France has never captured the imagination in the way that the Empire created by Napoleon Bonaparte does. Bonaparte's nephew, who became Napoleon III, is an altogether less charismatic figure - yet his rise to power, dependent on a supportive electorate more than on force of arms, has its own fascination, and pre-figures the experience of the 20th (and 21st) centuries, the manipulation of democratic processes to allow "strongmen" to seize the state. In "Coup de Tete" and "Coup de Pierre", the birth pangs of the Second Empire, in 1851 and 1852, are the background to the work of Lucien de Boizillac, of the Paris police, in investigating crimes carried out in the streets and houses of the capital city. Just as French society was changing, under the pressures of a new imperial rule and a fast-growing economy, so too was the city. I hope that I have captured something of the atmosphere of the times, and shown how individuals like Lucien had to adjust to the changes around them. A third novel is in gestation - "Coup de Guerre", set in 1854, and played out against the involvement of France, and Britain, in the Crimean War. A bygone era, but human dilemmas which recur in all countries at all times.