Keith Crawford

I am a retired Royal Navy Officer, a disabled veteran, a barrister, and a Doctor of Law & Economics.

In 2014 I was lecturing at Sciences Po in Paris and negotiating a contract to write a book on banking regulation, when we discovered to our delight that my wife had fallen pregnant. Rather than spend all my wages on somebody else looking after my children and write books only a handful of scholars would read, I quit my job to care of the kids, support my wife’s career, and write something more fun.

Fiction lets me explore philosophical and intellectual ideas that excite me whilst wrapping then up in swordfights, sex, and explosions. Since becoming a stay-at-home Dad I've written more than a dozen staged plays, been listed in short story and flash fiction competitions (including the BBC Writers Room Drama Competition), run international radio play contests that helped develop hundreds of aspiring radio writers, and published my first novels. The second, Dead Moon, was shortlisted for the Shelf Unbound Indie Award.

It has been an incredibly challenging few years, but when I'm sat with my laptop on and one or more of now three children curled up on my lap, it all feels worthwhile.