Stephen Leather in Manchester Evening News

Hot On The Trail Of Terror

Originally published in the Manchester Evening News, February 15, 2007

STEPHEN Leather is an author with his feet firmly planted in the all-too-scary real world. His internationally popular thrillers have headline-grabbing backdrops – terrorist threats, hostage situations and prisons.

It’s heavy stuff. And with a past career in journalism and a research stint in Belmarsh Prison (where fellow writer Jeffrey Archer was a recent guest), you could say that Leather is tough as old boots.

His latest, and 18th, novel, Hot Blood, continues to follow cop Dan `Spider’ Shepherd as he tries to rescue a former colleague who is kidnapped in Iraq.

But despite his interest in contemporary conflict, Leather is adamant that he isn’t a political writer. “I don’t have any political leanings at all,” he says. “I am now 50 years old and I have never voted and probably never will. There is no political party that I agree with, and I pretty much hold all politicians in contempt.”

Stephen was born in Swinton and grew up in Sale and Chorlton. He attended Manchester Grammar and worked on the school newspaper. Now Stephen divides his time far more exotically between Dublin and Bangkok and often writes for TV – something he enjoys for its collaborative nature.

“I love writing for TV because you get to work with other people,” he says. “Book writing is a lonely business because it’s just you and the keyboard.”

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