Books
Pulped Non-Fiction

No longer available for legal reasons (see here), this book began when I got back from the Cannes Film Festival in May/June 2009 (name dropper!) and had two calls on my answering machine. One from the Underbelly tv series Executive Producer Des Monaghan of Screentime and the other from publisher Richard Walsh. Des’s call said […]
Snitch in the media

The very few remaining copies of Snitch were pulped as a consequence of an out-of-court legal settlement with a person named in the book who claimed that they had been defamed. I can’t name the person or comment on the outcome of the case which, contrary to some reports, never actually went to court. All […]
Watto

I often joke that the reason I came to live in Australia was so I could support an international Test team that wasn’t England. That’s a bit of an exaggeration but there would be an element of truth in that for any cricket-loving Scot. Anyway, you can imagine my delight when I was approached by […]
‘Snitch’ in the media

Jimmy and the Inspector on Nova 969. 17-04-2010, Examiner, review 01-05-2010 Newcastle Herald, feature 08-05-2010 Hobart Mercury review 24-04-2010 Burnie Advocate article
The Koala Who Bounced

Karri the Koala came to life when the artist/cartoonist Eric Lobbecke asked my wife Sue if he she would write a kids book for him to illustrate. For some reason she suggested that he and I collaborate and meantime she introduced us to the remarkable Selwa Anthony whose writer management agency was just getting going. […]
The Ultimate Guide …

Apartment Living led to my weekly Flat Chat column in the Sydney Morning Herald. Ironically, based on the column, Fairfax Publications invited me to write The Ultimate Guide to Buying and Renting Houses and Apartments which is a much more practical and down-to-earth “how-to” book about buying, selling and renting – although it does have […]
Apartment Living

APARTMENT LIVING – DESCRIBED BY ‘THE AGE’ AS “the Lonely Planet for apartments’ IS NOW OUT OF PRINT BUT WE ARE PLANNING TO UPDATE THE CONTENTS AND MAKE THE CHAPTERS INDIVIDUALLY AVAILABLE IN pdf FORM FROM THE NEW FLAT CHAT DEDICATED WEBSITE (click here). Apartment Living was written by my partner Sue Williams and me […]
Write away (or punning for a living)

Once upon a time, all I wanted to do was write a book. About 20 years ago I wrote a novel called “Own Goals”, set in my home town, Dumfries, and related in a bizarre way to Scottish football fans. I sent it to one publisher who told me he didn’t want it but added […]