Eddy Shah
see also - www.eddyshah.com
Eddy Shah has always been at the forefront of innovation in his business and creative life: whether revolutionising the newspaper industry by introducing new technology and journalistic methods at the ground-breaking Today newspapers, changing the way TV programmes were produced with peak-time shows, and now tackling the building of building affordable and eco-friendly homes.
Writing has been a major part of Eddy Shah's life since he was sixteen and in the 1990s he wrote four successful novels: 'Manchester Blue', 'Fallen Angels', 'The Lucy Ghosts' and 'Ring of Red Roses'. Shah spent two years researching and writing 'Second World'; he'd first had the idea for the novel thirteen years ago but it was considered a book ahead of its time so Shah put it aside as he waited for the technology and information age to catch up with his ideas. Launched in 2009, 'Second World' was a high-tech, futuristic action-thriller which took us straight into the parallel world of today's virtual reality Internet. It was a top seller.
Now, with the CoronaVirus on the loose, life will become more restricted for normal people in their everyday lives. Social distancing and other legal constraints on the public will influence our every-day freedoms. We could remain in various forms of 'lockdown' for many years to come, especially of there are further spikes to an epidemic resurgence. As technology grows, we will need escape routes for us to lead normal lives. In my re-write of 'To Kill A President', Virtual reality becomes that roadway that helps us retain our sanity and our individual freedoms. We have that technology. Now is the time for us to use it. We can still live under the strict rules of pandemic suppressed everyday life, but we have a breakout area in Virtual Reality that will free our minds and allow us to do what we want to do. This thriller is pertinent to where we go next and what dangers that can produce in our bid for freedom.
In addition to that, he has also launched another thriller, 'Rogue State - Terminate with Violence', which covers the control of us by the State which was started under Tony Blair and, in a series of five books, runs up to Boris Johnson. Both books are now on sale through Amazon in paperback and Kindle form.
Born in 1944 in Cambridge, Eddy Shah was educated at Gordonstoun in Scotland, followed by Haywards Heath Grammar School and despite being thrown out of several schools along the way managed to get nine O levels. He didn't go to University but his lifelong passion for books and reading started when he was very young and he's been writing all his life.
He started his career in theatre and television as a stage manager and progressed to the BBC and Granada as a floor manager working on classic shows such as "Till Death Us Do Part", "Coronation Street" and "Softly,Softly". He then entered the newspaper business with the Manchester Evening News and after being made redundant sold his house to start his own paper and eventually built up a portfolio of 60 newspaper titles.
During this period he introduced new technology through desktop publishing to the newspaper and magazine industries when he launched Today in 1986 and in the process became one of the most talked-about newspaper men of the 1980s. He then launched a national newspaper and forced Fleet Street to follow by de-unionising and introducing new technology.
Shah sold his newspaper empire in 1988 and in 1989 set up Messenger TV an independent company which produced several successful prime-time series including "Capstick's Law" .
Eddy Shah has now sold his other businesses and has returned to writing. His main love has been 'Noire' books set in the Eighties and Nineties, centring on crime or espionage. His series on 'The Nineties - Decade of the Damned' were best sellers and were thrillers reflecting that period.
Eddy and his wife Jennifer, a model and actress who was in the original Bond movie Casino Royale, have three grown-up children and are celebrating over fiftyy years of marriage this year.
