James Quinn

Ever since I was a little boy I have always wanted to write and be an author. I won a short story competition in Primary school (a story about Ant-Man no less) and that was it I knew it was what I was meant to do.

Oh too many; I've consistently read Stephen King since I was a teenager; The Stand had a big impact on me, it was the first place that I came across world-building in books. But being a spy author it was inevitable that I would be drawn to the works of Ian Fleming, Len Deighton and John LeCarre.

I would say that they are action based spy stories, but with a very human element to them. People die, there is espionage, but its all carried out in a realistic and very human way.

The protagonist of the Gorilla Grant books, Jack Gorilla Grant, has been with me since the start. He's a cold professional killer and spy, but is also a family man. I like that balance for a character. He's based on bits of me, bits of people that I have known...but somewhere along the way he also found his own identity too.

I'm working on a new series of espionage/spy thrillers and I'd like the work and the characters to reach a wider audience as much as possible. At the end of the day I just want to tell stories to people and, hopefully, the readers will enjoy them.