Jack Thompson was born a long time ago in the north of England. After spells as a teacher, bus conductor, industrial spy and pianist in working men’s clubs, he joined the BBC where he eventually landed the job of foreign correspondent for the World Service. He reported from south-east Asia, the Middle East, eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. He followed the Vietnamese army into Cambodia as it overthrew the Khmer Rouge and saw the grisly aftermath of Pol Pot’s killing fields. He was nearly blown to bits by militiamen in Lebanon and verbally pilloried by Saddam Hussein’s information ministry for a report on human rights abuses in Iraq. His bosses at the BBC described him as “curmudgeonly and subversive”, a badge he wears with pride. He left the BBC in 1995 and became a newscaster with Deutsche Welle TV in Berlin. Since 2002, he’s devoted himself to writing, playing the piano again and trying to help with the upbringing of his grandchildren. In March 2006 he won the Scottish Association of Writers Pitlochry Award for Crimewriting with his thriller A Wicked Device. He lives in London with his wife, Kathryn.
