RORY CLEMENTS

According to the bio on his website: "I HAVE a passion for thrillers. I love reading about men and women facing the ultimate test under fire - and I love writing about them. It must be in my blood.

Born in Dover, Kent, and raised in various outposts of the world while my father served in the Royal Navy, I grew up hungry to become a writer.

I worked for many years as a national newspaper journalist. But I always dreamed of switching to novel-writing - and on moving to Norfolk in 2007 I found the perfect spot to achieve my ambition. There is no great rush here. You have time and space to think, to chat and to imagine.

So why thrillers? Well, it might have something to do with my family history.

My generation of the Clements clan is the first since the Crimean War not to have seen active service in a branch of the military, and I feel extremely fortunate that this is so. While my father, grandfather and great-grandfather survived fierce and deadly fighting in three major wars, I fear I would not have measured up. Psychoanalysts might wonder whether I am trying to make up for this by weaving stories around those with more courage than myself - and they might have a point."