Michael J. Rowbottom

British writer and broadcaster Mike Rowbottom has published his latest novel, Their Secret Hell, to Kindle, a story of corruption and weakness, but also steadfastness and strength.

Their Secret Hell was inspired by events first imagined by Mike in the early-90s but made horribly real when a police investigation uncovered a paedophile ring in a London borough with almost exactly the same details. Simon Preston is an easygoing but curious TV reporter who stumbles unwittingly and perhaps unwillingly upon a circle of influential men who prey upon boys in local authority care.

He teams up with a reliuctant and anything but admiring paediatrician to track down the culprits; they're helped by Preston's recently estranged girlfriend, a high flying CID sergeant destined for senior rank.

Mike wrote this in the early 90s and then shelved it thinking it might not register with the public for being too far-fetched. But then details began to emerge later in the decade and into the next century of exactly this kind of predatory behaviour so he took it down, dusted it off and rewrote it for the 2020s.

Mike's second novel, It's Your Choice Jack! is an excoriating look at the TV industry and its relationship with the police in its cynical bid to improve ratings.

Jack Holland is an experienced but blinkered reporter who's found an easy life of sensations and headlines delivered to him on a plate. His girlfriend is a senior police officer on her way to chief constable. They twist and bruise each other as they pursue their different aims. It's Your Choice Jack! sees a callous world populated with well-meaning people who can't break through against the noise.

Mike's first novel, Shallow Lives... Shallow Seas, is a story of danger and threat set in the exotic location of the Arabian Gulf at the time of the Second Gulf War. Most of it is based in the author's experience of living and working in The Gulf.

Concrete weighted bodies are hauled from the sea, a call girl is found murdered and her friend goes on the run because she knows who did it.

All this is set against a sub plot of planted weapons in Iraq.

"It's a potent mixture which rattles along at a pace but still I hope has time to explore all of the characters," says Mike who lives in the English Thames Valley.

"The events are based on real incidents during my time living and working the Gulf. A poor call girl was found dead in our apartment block and while I didn't know her, I'd seen her in the elevator and by the swimming pool. She was aloof and beautiful.

"Life can be very cheap in the Middle East and we also heard stories of young Filipinos being found in the shallows close to the shore. It was always denied by police, but then everything was denied by police. It might have happened and it might not have happened; it was enough to give me the germ of an idea."

Mike, writing as Michael J. Rowbottom, started his writing career as a local newspaper reporter and still writes columns for the local press.

He reported for Independent Radio News in London, at the time part of London Broadcasting Company (LBC), to serve the fledgling Independent radio network with stories from around the country and around the world.

He says: "It was an eye-opener coming from the provinces to be suddenly keeping my head down in Northern Ireland, or covering major events in Europe. But all of this gave me an outlook on the world which informs my writing now.

"We were based just off Fleet Street next to the Cheshire Cheese pub so we were immersed in the atmosphere. The media of newspapers, radio and TV reporters was a much smaller world in those days and everyone more or less knew everyone else."

Mike joined the South of England ITV station, TVS as the Thames Valley Bureau chief before chasing the adventure of working in the Gulf for the Dubai TV station.

He says: "That had a profound effect on me and my thinking and it's still with me now."

Mike returned to freelance with ITN before joining Central TV where he became known in the south of the station's transmission area stretching from the Welsh border to the M25 and from Northampton to Swindon.

Mike has also written 20 plays and a musical. He plays in a rock band when not writing.