Ben grew up in the once rural county of Kent, spending as much time as humanly possible with his mates causing mayhem in the nearby countryside. Later he spent three years as an undergraduate in the altogether different environment of what was then the recovering metropolis of Manchester. A fabulous place for a student. It was as this idealic phase of life came to an end, and the depressing world of work began to take its place ,that Ben's urge to give vent to his creative side started to seep out in a growing stream of bits and pieces writing. A disjointed and eclectic mix for a long time, this eventually morphed in to complete pieces of work, covering novels, poetry, song lyrics, plays and even a few pieces of non-fiction. Having completed what felt like an excessively long apprenticeship, Ben chose to focus on the world of crime, in particular drawing on his experience of that whirlwind of a decade, the 1980s. Humour is an important and frequently present element of Ben's writing. Although primarily there to entertain the reader, it also helps Ben avoid the trap of taking himself and his writing too seriously.
