Steve Jackson (thriller writer)
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Thriller writer Steve Jackson was born in Arbroath, Scotland in 1969. He spent his early childhood living in the golfing town of Carnoustie. At the age of eleven he moved to Stroud in Gloucestershire, England. He now lives in St. Albans, Hertfordshire.
On leaving school, Jackson went into journalism. He worked first for the Marlborough Times, and then for the Stroud News and Journal. The Nineties saw a radical change of direction. A keen guitarist from a young age, he spent most of that decade trying to make a living as a musician. During this time he played in numerous bands. He also worked as a recording engineer.
At the turn of the millennium he started writing fiction. His debut novel, The Mentor, was published by HarperCollins in October 2006. The book introduces MI6 spy, Paul Aston. The Mentor opens with the bombing of a London Underground train.
He actually began writing The Mentor in July 2003. When faced with writing a 'Big British Thriller', he wondered ‘what if there was a 9/11 attack on Britain?’. When fiction became fact on 7 July 2005, he watched the news reports in stunned disbelief, compeletly horrifed that what he had been writing about had come true. He avoided the novel for a few months after 7/7, he needed distance from it, needed space. In the final version he changed the angle slightly - what if it happened again?
The second Paul Aston book, The Judas, will be published in 2007.
