Delphian is a British intelligence spy story.

I loved writing Delphian. It’s a novel I set in Wales at a location I know well.

In Delphian I wanted to expose the hypocrisy that is vivisection, yet I accept the argument that if I had a child dying of cancer I would be desperate for a cure. Thus the story begins with someone’s child being used as a vivisection subject. The idiosyncratic characters that people the story add layers of colour and  sub-plot threads that emerged so naturally. The characters really did write Delphian, not me. I finished the book on one hundred and seventy thousand words.

But when I sent the manuscript to my agent he, without reading a page, told me I had to get the novel down to one hundred thousand words maximum. He explained the publishing industry had changed dramatically since I’d written Raw Nerve and publishers no longer risked big print runs to get the price point right until the author had a name that would sell books in vast quantities.

I suddenly had a huge problem. Either I listen to my agent and tore out the heart of the novel or I stood my ground? I stood my ground.

And now Wales Press have published the novel.

If you enjoy a big, juicy thriller, then this book is for you.