Stephen Booth

Nominated Title: One Last Breath
Publisher: Harper Collins

A journalist for over twenty-five years, a Rugby Union aficionado and a breeder of dairy goats, Stephen Booth wrote his first novel at the age of twelve.

Stephen was brought up in Blackpool where he became editor of his school magazine. Progression was only a matter of time and he began work on his first newspaper in Cheshire in 1974 on which Stephen was a specialist rugby union correspondent. He also worked night shifts as a sub-editor on the Daily Express and The Guardian, followed by periods with local newspapers in Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.

Stephen's first published novel, Black Dog – which introduces DC Ben Cooper and DS Diane Fry to the world of Crime fiction – was named by the London Evening Standard as one of the six best crime novels of 2000 and was the only book on their list written by a British author. Since then, six other Cooper and Fry novels have followed with Scared To Death being the latest published by Harper Collins.

Stephen is now settled in Nottinghamshire with his wife, three goats and three cats and gave up journalism in 2001 to concentrate full-time on his writing.