Mark Timlin

Mark Timlin (born 15 June 1944, in Cheltenham) is a British author best known for his series of novels featuring Nick Sharman, a former Metropolitan Police officer who takes up the profession of private investigator in South London. The Sharman books are characterised by their noir tone and their fast action, and feature a high casualty rate among their characters; Sharman himself is frequently injured or even hospitalised in the course of the novels. The books formed the basis for the TV series Sharman, in which Clive Owen played the eponymous detective; Timlin made a cameo appearance in the pilot episode.Before commencing his writing career, Timlin worked in a variety of jobs such as being a roadie for rock groups including T Rex and The Who, running a Clapham Junction music venue, minicab driver, and proprietor of a skateboard company. In 1985 he was unemployed and living in a friend's abandoned bus. Turning to writing as a way out of living on benefits, he wrote his first novel, A Good Year for the Roses, which was published as a paperback original in 1988. The Sharman series is now in double figures; in early years, Timlin published prolifically. Almost all of the Sharman books carry titles which are taken from songs.

He has cited influences on his work as including Ed McBain, Raymond Chandler, Ross Macdonald, Richard Stark and John D. MacDonald.Both the violent nature of the Sharman novels, and remarks made by Timlin himself, have made the author a figure of controversy. He resigned from the Crime Writers' Association, saying he "would rather stick needles in my eyes" than ever rejoin, and was scornful of comments made by P. D. James, who argued that cosy mysteries presented opportunities to depict moral choices which hardboiled style novels lacked; Timlin claimed "I write about the reality I see on the streets of south London" and insisted that Sharman "has his own morals". Other writers such as Val McDermid were also critical of James' opinions.Timlin lives in London's Docklands. For many years he reviewed crime fiction for the Independent on Sunday newspaper.