Graham Satchwell

I left school without any formal qualifications in order to....drift. Failed footballer, builders labourer and other dead-end jobs. But in my teens I met the girl of my dreams and suddenly found the drive to improve my prospects.

I scraped into the Police service and for the first time ever, I started to focus. I stayed for 31 years and was lucky enough to make detective superintendent. By then, 2 Home Office scholarships later, I was a law graduate and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

After retiring from the police, I joined the Microsoft Corporation in Paris. Even more senior roles with other global corporations followed Then, after trying all sorts of business start-ups and realising that I was not born to a businessman, I started to write. That was twenty years ago.

In about 2004, having concluded several major international investigations into counterfeit medicines, I wrote my first book, 'A Sick Business - Counterfeit Medicines and Organised Crime'. It resulted in my giving expert testimony before the U.S. Senate and in numerous other foreign venues. The book sold well within the closed world of international pharmaceuticals, and it encouraged me. I've been writing ever since.

Some books need to be written. My first, about counterfeit medicines, was in that category, the public needed to be warned.

Next came my memoir. According to The Guardian newspaper, 'An Inspector Recalls' was, 'The best of the genre' (police memoirs). It is regarded as being a uniquely frank description of policing in the 1970's, 80's and 90's. It is serious, funny, revealing and, in places, sad.

My third (or 4th if you count 'Coincidence or Crisis') was also non-fiction. I started my research for 'Great Train Robbery Confidential' in about 2012. It started out as a work of fiction. I truly believe that fiction can be more illuminating that non-fiction by bringing alive the true character and culture of those involved.Then I reconnected with Tom Wisbey, a Great Train Robber. I had got to know him in the 80's when I was officer in charge of a case against 21 individuals (Tom Wisbey was one of them) who were involved in stealing mailbags from trains (Yes, again!).

Tom and I got on well. He was keen to help me with the dramatised story of the robbery. He loved the creative writing and suggested other potential stories we could develop too. Sadly,Tom died before the book was finished. But finding a publisher for the fiction wasn't easy. Meanwhile, I had discovered so much new factual information about the robbery that I had more than enough material for another work of non-fiction. 'Great Train Robbery Confidential' soon found a publisher.

But I felt strongly that our work of fiction needed to be finished and published.

Next came, 'Rot At The Core', a true story of police corruption, and another book I felt compelled to write. I'm pleased to say my instincts were good - it has helped others to have miscarriages of justice overturned.

But the fictional account of the GTR was never far from my thoughts. I truly believe 'The Great Train Robbery and The South Coast Raiders' is by far the most telling and accurate fictional telling of the story ever broadcast or published.

By the way, that 'girl of my dreams' I mentioned in the opening paragraph? Well 55 years later, she is playing bridge online as I am writing this to you.

Thank you for your interest.

if you would like to give me feedback on any of my books, I would be delighted to hear from you.