MW Craven

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M.W. Craven

Although he was born in Cumbria, MW Craven grew up in the north east of England before running away to join the army as soon as he was 16. After training as an armourer for two and a half years (that’s an army gunsmith to you and me), he spent the next ten travelling the world having fun.

In 1995 he left the army, and after a brief flirtation with close protection and bodyguarding, decided on a degree in social work with specialisms in criminology and substance misuse. In 1999 he joined Cumbria Probation Service as a probation officer, working his way up to chief officer grade. Sixteen years later he took the plunge and accepted redundancy to concentrate on writing full-time, and now has entirely different motivations for trying to get inside the minds of criminals.

Between leaving the army and securing his first publishing deal, he found time to keep a pet crocodile, breed snakes, get married, and buy a springer spaniel named Bracken. He lives in Carlisle with his wife Joanne, where he tries to leave the house as little as possible.

Interviewed 09 November 2019

Ten words to sum up your working life to date ...

Soldier
Student
Probation officer
Chief probation officer
Full-time author

Nine things you can see from where you're sitting ...

Alice Teale is Missing by Howard Linskey (my current read)
Herdwick sheep coffee mug
Iron Maiden beer stein
Official England cricket team sunhat
Pond
Frogs
Blue sky
Wife
My English Springer Spaniel (Bracken)

Eight minutes to prepare a meal. What's it going to be ?

Marmite and cheese sandwich on a walnut cob, pack of jalapeño and cheese ridged crisps.

Seven people you'd like to go for a drink with ...

Jackson Lamb
Nanny Ogg
Al Swearengen
Clinton Tyree (Skink)
Ian Botham
Peter Griffin
Ron Swanson
(I suspect it’d end in fisticuffs but it wouldn’t be one I forgot)

Six things you can't live without ...

Curry
Craft ale
Cheese
Cricket
Books
Music

Five favourite words ...

Immolation
Ortolan
Bunting
Misanthrope
Geek

Four places you'd run away to ...

Immolation
Ortolan
Bunting
Misanthrope
Geek

Three books you've bought recently ...

Night Dogs by Kent Anderson
The Death and Life of Bobby Z by Don Winslow
No One Is Too Small To Make A Difference by Greta Thunberg

Two things that make you rant ...

English batsmen not leaving the new ball
Anti-vaxxers

One thing you'd tell your teenage self ...

Keep all the stuff you wrote, even the poems ...