Colin Bateman
‘Bateman has barged
fearlessly into the previously unsuspected middle ground between
Carl Hiaasen and Irvine Welsh and claimed it for his own’
GQ
‘If Roddy Doyle was as good as people
say, he would probably write novels like this’
Arena
 It
may come as a surprise that the story of how Colin Bateman
first came to be published is almost as infamous as his characters.
Vamoosing the small Northern Irish seaside town of Bangor,
he soon bagged a job writing a satirical column for the County
Down Spectator, a column which received vociferous response
from its readers. It's not a small claim to fame that he is
one of the few people who has ever been sued by The Boys Brigade.
His first novel - Divorcing Jack - initially languished
as he did in the bath when the idea came to him. "I'd
just read a series of detective books which made me realise
that instead of trying to write the great classic novel of
all time, I should write something quite simple." It
then went on to win the Betty Trask Prize. Other awards include
a Northern Ireland Press Award for his weekly satirical column
and a Journalist's Fellowship to Oxford University.
But languish he did no more. He has now written six novels
with the most recent being The Horse With My Name -
the latest Dan Starkey adventure - and Murphy's Law
to be released in November. Murphy's Law's publication
will accompany the screening of it's dramatization starring
none other than James Nesbitt of Cold Feet fame as
Jimmy Murphy on BBC1.
Colin lives in Bangor in Ireland with his family.
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