As a child, I had two ambitions – to become a psychologist, and to be a writer. I’ve been lucky enough to spend most of my life doing both. I graduated from the University of Bristol in 1986 with a degree in psychology, and went on to lecture in psychology and criminology in and around Bristol and Somerset. I spent my spare time writing short stories of all sorts and storing them in drawers around the house. In 2008 I was persuaded to take my writing out of the drawer, and was delighted to win an Apprenticeship in Fiction with ‘Adventures in Fiction’ in association with the Arts Council and a grant from the Oppenheimer-John Downes Memorial Trust. In the same year, my travel article, ‘Flying Fish with Anne-Marie’ won the Daily Telegraph travel writing prize. In 2009 my short story, ‘Mr Muyila’s Bull’ was shortlisted in the Mslexia short story competition, and other successes followed, including winning the New Writer Microfiction competition in 2012. In 2014 I decided to focus on my first love, crime/thriller writing, and my novel ‘A breath of Madness’ was shortlisted for both the Yeovil and Exeter novel prizes. I completed an MA in creative writing, and found myself teaching both psychology and arts/creative writing with the Open University. Now, I write crime/thriller fiction full time.
H J Reed, Author 