Stephen Leather

Leather was born in Manchester. He grew up in Sale and Chorlton-cum-Hardy, and attended Manchester Grammar School.{{cite web |url=http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/entertainment/arts/s/234/234245_hot_on_the_trail_of_terror_.html |title=Hot on the trail of terror |first=Emma |last=Unsworth |accessdate=19 January 2013 |date=25 January 2007 | work =Manchester Evening News }} He attended Bath University, where he obtained a BSc in Biochemistry in 1980.

Leather was employed as a biochemist for ICI, shovelled limestone in a quarry, worked as a baker, a petrol pump attendant, a barman, and worked for the Inland Revenue. He began his writing career as a journalist, working for newspapers such the Glasgow Herald, Daily Mirror, The Times, Daily Mail, and the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong.{{cite web|last=Ingham|first=Tim|title=Stephen Leather|date=27 October 2009 |url=http://metro.co.uk/2009/10/27/stephen-leather-636055/|publisher=Metro|accessdate=1 May 2013}}

Leather began writing when he was in college; however, he "never managed to get beyond a few pages,"{{cite web | last= Leather | first = Stephen | title=The Author | url=http://www.stephenleather.com/index.php?page=the-author | accessdate = 14 August 2012}} and did not begin writing full-time until he had worked as a journalist for more than ten years.

His first novel, Pay Off, was written while he was still employed at The Daily Mirror. It was published from the "slush pile" at HarperCollins. The novel is a thriller about a merchant banker who takes revenge on two gangsters who killed his father. The book is set in Scotland, where Leather worked for five years on The Glasgow Herald as a business writer.

His second novel, The Fireman, was written while he was working as the business editor of the South China Morning Post.{{cite journal | last =Spelman | first =Judith | journal = Writing Magazine | title =Judith Spelman Talks to a Best Selling Author Who Produces A Thriller A Year | pages = 8–9 | date=August 2008 }} In The Fireman, a British tabloid journalist travels to Hong Kong to discover why his sister committed suicide. Both novels, and his third, Hungry Ghost, were published by HarperCollins.

Leather wrote his fourth novel, The Chinaman, while working as night news editor on the business desk of The Times in London. At the time, the Provisional Irish Republican Army's bombing campaign was at its height, and in The Chinaman, a Sino-Vietnamese man loses his family in an attack loosely based on the bombing of the Harrods department store in London. Having been turned away by the authorities, the man, a highly decorated Special Forces fighter in the Vietnam War, travels to Ireland and hunts down the people responsible.{{cite web|title=The Chinaman|url=http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-671-74301-7|publisher=Publishers Weekly|accessdate=1 May 2013}}{{cite web|url=http://www.thebookseller.com/feature/bookseller-100.html-0|title= Bookseller 100|publisher = The Bookseller|accessdate=7 August 2012}} The book was used as the basis for the 2017 thriller The Foreigner.{{cite news|last1=Busch|first1=Anita|last2=Fleming Jr|first2=Mike|title=Jackie Chan To Star in 'The Foreigner' for STX Entertainment|url=https://deadline.com/2015/06/jackie-chan-to-star-in-the-foreigner-for-stx-entertainment-1201438647/|access-date=30 June 2017|work=Deadline Hollywood|date=5 June 2015}}

Leather's novels frequently include themes of crime, imprisonment, military service, and terrorism. Settings are typically London and the Far East. Leather writes different series in slightly different genres. The main character of one series, Dan 'Spider' Shepherd, is a former Special Air Service soldier who becomes an undercover policeman. Another series, Jack Nightingale, is about a former police negotiator who becomes a private investigator;{{cite web | publisher=Writers Services | title=Success Story 11 – Stephen Leather | url=http://www.writersservices.com/mag/10/Success_story_11.htm| accessdate = 13 August 2012}} this supernatural detective series is also published by Hodder & Stoughton and includes the books Nightfall, Midnight, Nightmare, Nightshade{{cite web|title=Nightshade|url=http://www.hodder.co.uk/Books/detail.page?isbn=9781444740684|publisher=Hodder & Stoughton|accessdate=8 May 2013}} and Lastnight, San Francisco, New York Night, Tennessee Night, The Whisper Man, Witch Hunt, New Orleans Night, Las Vegas Night, Rio Grande Night.

Leather has written screenplays for London's Burning, The Knock, and the BBC's Murder in Mind series.{{cite web | publisher=Star Trader | title= Joe Andoe | url=http://www.startrader.co.uk/Action%20TV/guide2000/murdermind.htm| accessdate = 14 August 2012}}{{cite web | work=TV.com | title= Stephen Leather | url=http://www.tv.com/people/stephen-leather/| accessdate = 14 August 2012}} Two of his novels, The Stretch and The Bombmaker, were screened for made for TV movies and filmed for Sky Television. The Stretch starred Leslie Grantham and Anita Dobson, two popular soap opera stars from the U.K.{{cite web | publisher=DigiGuide | title=The Stretch – Drama | url=http://digiguide.tv/programme/The+Stretch/Drama/55011/| accessdate = 14 August 2012}}

Leather became successful in the Amazon Kindle market in 2010.{{cite news|last=Skidelsky|first=William|title=Kindle gives thriller writer a plot for success – at 71p a shot|url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/feb/27/kindle-ebooks-amazon-stephen-leather|work=The Guardian|accessdate=1 May 2013|location=London|date=27 February 2011}} Amazon UK opened an eBook store that year. As reported in The Guardian, Leather anticipated that people buying eBooks would be seeking bargains, and he priced his books at the minimum price for independent writers in order to get his books into the top ten. He then marketed the books on various forums online.

Early in 2011, Leather's books The Basement, Hard Landing, and the vampire novella Once Bitten occupied the top three places in the UK Kindle bestseller list, a feat matched only by Stieg Larsson with his The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy.{{cite web|last=Jones|first=Phillip|title='Confessions' is e-book of the year|url=http://www.thebookseller.com/news/confessions-e-book-year.html|publisher=The Bookseller|accessdate=1 May 2013}} That same year, Leather was the second bestselling UK author on the Kindle worldwide, beaten only by Lee Child.{{cite journal|url=http://www.thebookseller.com/news/lee-child-most-successful-uk-kindle-author.html|title=Lee Child most successful UK Kindle author|journal=The Bookseller|accessdate=7 August 2012}}{{cite web|title=The top 50 e-book bestsellers of the year|url=http://futurebook.net/content/top-50-e-book-bestsellers-year|publisher=Future Book|access-date=1 May 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130703013302/http://futurebook.net/content/top-50-e-book-bestsellers-year|archive-date=3 July 2013}}

In 2002, Leather's book Tango One was nominated for the inaugural CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, awarded by the Crime Writers' Association.{{cite web | publisher=Isis Publishing | title=Tango One | url=https://www.isis-publishing.co.uk/osb/itemdetails.cfm/ID/3534 | archive-url=https://archive.today/20121223222923/https://www.isis-publishing.co.uk/osb/itemdetails.cfm/ID/3534 | url-status=dead | archive-date=23 December 2012 | access-date=13 August 2012 }}{{cite web | publisher=Crime Writer's Association | title=The CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger 2002 | url=http://www.thecwa.co.uk/daggers/2002/steel.html | access-date=13 August 2012 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120628021635/http://www.thecwa.co.uk/daggers/2002/steel.html | archive-date=28 June 2012 }} His book Hard Landing was nominated for the award in 2004.{{cite web | publisher=Crime Writer's Association | title=THE CWA's 2004 Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award | url=http://www.thecwa.co.uk/daggers/2004/steel.html | access-date=13 August 2012 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051225112510/http://www.thecwa.co.uk/daggers/2004/steel.html | archive-date=25 December 2005 }}

His book Cold Kill was nominated for Best Novel in 2007 by International Thriller Writers Inc.{{cite web | publisher=Thriller Writers | title=ITW Thriller Award nominees and winners. | url=http://www.thrillerwriters.org/thrillerfest/current-and-past-thriller-awards.html | access-date=13 August 2012 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120221174936/http://www.thrillerwriters.org/thrillerfest/current-and-past-thriller-awards.html | archive-date=21 February 2012 }} In 2011, Leather sold over 500,000 eBooks{{citation needed|date=May 2013}} and was voted by The Bookseller magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the UK publishing world.

On 5 August 2012, journalist Nick Cohen wrote in The Observer that Leather had created phony Twitter accounts in the name of another writer, and used those accounts to praise Leather's own books.{{cite news | last = Cohen | first = Nick | author-link = Nick Cohen | url= https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/aug/05/nick-cohen-cheating-authors-journalists | newspaper = The Observer | date = 5 August 2012 | title= Welcome to Britain, a home fit for shysters | accessdate = 2013-11-03 | location=London}} Cohen quoted Leather's response to a question, as a panelist, at the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival, which was recorded for BBC Radio 4:{{cite news | title = The e-book debate - threat or opportunity? | date = 2012-08-29 | publisher = BBC Radio 4 | url = http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01m5nqm | work = Front Row | accessdate = 2013-11-03 | quote = (Quote, in response to audience question, at around 26.53)}}

"As soon as my book is out I'm on Facebook and Twitter several times a day talking about it. I'll go on to several forums, the well-known forums, and post there under my name and under various other names and various other characters. You build up this whole network of characters who talk about your books and sometimes have conversations with yourself."

Leather's comment was widely reported,{{Cite news | first = Jake | last = Kerridge |title = A crime author, at the festival, with a kindle | date = 2012-08-06 | url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/9449211/A-crime-author-at-the-festival-with-a-kindle.html | work = The Telegraph | accessdate = 2013-11-03 | location=London}}{{cite news | first = Jake | last = Kerridge | title = Are RJ Ellory's faked reviews the tip of the iceberg? | date = 2012-09-04 | url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/9520374/Are-RJ-Ellorys-faked-reviews-the-tip-of-the-iceberg.html | work = The Telegraph | accessdate = 2013-11-03 | location=London}}{{cite news | first = Laura | last = Miller | title = Social media scamsters | date = 2012-08-10 | url = http://www.salon.com/2012/08/09/social_media_scamsters/ | work = Salon.com | accessdate = 2013-11-03}}{{cite news | first = Alison | last = Flood | title = Sock puppetry and fake reviews: publish and be damned | date = 2012-09-03 | url = https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/sep/03/rj-ellory-secret-amazon-reviews | work = The Guardian | accessdate = 2013-11-03}}{{cite news | first = Laura | last = Miller | title = Talking with Daniel Mendelsohn about the year in literary criticism | date = 2013-01-01 | url = http://www.salon.com/2012/12/31/talking_with_daniel_mendelsohn_about_the_year_in_literary_criticism/ | work = Salon.com | accessdate = 2013-11-03}} and, on 3 September 2012, forty nine other British authors issued a group statement in which they "unreservedly condemn" the use of sockpuppets, or paid reviews.{{cite news | first = Andrew | last = Hough | title = RJ Ellory: fake book reviews are rife on internet, authors warn | date = 2012-09-03 | url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/9518531/RJ-Ellory-fake-book-reviews-are-rife-on-internet-authors-warn.html | work = The Telegraph | accessdate = 2013-11-03 | location=London}}{{cite news | first = Steve | last = Hayes | title = Leading writers condemn fake online reviews | date = 2012-09-04 | url = http://digitaljournal.com/article/332107 | work = Digital Journal | accessdate = 2013-11-03}}{{cite news | first = Benedicte | last = Page | title = Condemnation grows for sock puppet reviews | date = 2012-09-03 | url = http://www.thebookseller.com/news/condemnation-grows-sock-puppet-reviews.html | work = The Bookseller | accessdate = 2013-11-03}}

Jeremy Duns and Steve Mosby have alleged that Leather has harassed them online.{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/stephen-leather-accused-of-running-online-sockpuppet-smear-campaign-against-fellow-thriller-writers-a6806696.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220525/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/stephen-leather-accused-of-running-online-sockpuppet-smear-campaign-against-fellow-thriller-writers-a6806696.html |archive-date=25 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=A thriller writer has been accused of running an online smear campaign|website=independent.co.uk|accessdate=16 September 2018}}{{Cite news|title = Stephen Leather accused of cyberbullying by fellow thriller writers|url = https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jan/12/stephen-leather-cyberbullying-steve-mosby-jeremy-duns|website = The Guardian|access-date = 2016-01-13|first = Alison|last = Flood| date=12 January 2016 }}

• The Stretch (2000), mini-series directed by Frank W. Smith, based on novel The Stretch
• The Bombmaker (2001), mini-series directed by Graham Theakston, based on novel The Bombmaker
• The Foreigner (2017), film directed by Martin Campbell, based on novel The Chinaman
• Tango One (2018), film directed by Sacha Bennett and Helena Holmes, based on novel Tango One

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Category:English thriller writers

Category:English crime fiction writers

Category:People educated at Manchester Grammar School

Category:Living people

Category:Writers from Manchester

Category:1958 births

Category:Alumni of the University of Bath